


Book 1: Air

by yehetxo



Series: Avatar: The Legend of Jisung [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: A lot of stuff goes down, Fluff and Angst, I suppose yes, M/M, Slow Burn, anyways enjoy this, basically this is my version of nct in the avatarverse!, if it gets bad i'll warn u tho but it wont really, jisung is dumb but that’s ok, jisung is the avatar, original plot i thought it up myself not to toot my own horn, rated teen 4 violence like bending fights and stuff, this is gonna be a long ride, yes jaemin is an airbender yes he has hair just go with it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:47:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 42,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23904874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yehetxo/pseuds/yehetxo
Summary: Realizing you're the Avatar at eighteen would be hard news for anybody. But, it's even harder news when the entire world has been at war since you were born, because of your crazy Earth Kingdom-born predecessor who went rogue and declared revenge on the Fire Nation after the infamous 100 Year War.And the fact that the Earth Kingdom want to recruit you to help them destroy your own people in the Fire Nation once and for all, but the Fire Nation want you dead to avoid more Avatar related trouble.Boy, does Jisung have his work cut out for him.
Relationships: Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, Park Jisung/Zhong Chen Le, might add another but im still thinking about it
Series: Avatar: The Legend of Jisung [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1723045
Comments: 32
Kudos: 93





	1. Inspection Day

**Author's Note:**

> whats up uhhh welcome to this long ass roller coaster!! im finally doing it im finally starting this series. the series will be in three parts for mastering the three elements like the og show was so this is gonna be a ride but thats ok i have a lot planned, lots of twists and turns and shite. i havent read this chapter in MONTHS i wrote this so long ago but here you go, if you like it i hope you stick with it and like tell me what u think if u want. so without further ado, welcome to my avatar universe!

Today is not a good day for Jisung to realize he is the Avatar.

The savoury smell of mixed spices wafts throughout the small bungalow, and Jisung hovers over the concoction boiling on the stove, slowly stirring it with a lazy precision, like he’s done this a thousand times before. Which, arguably, he has. He grabs a spoon off to the left of the pot and lifts some of the liquid to his lips, lightly blowing on it before taking a precarious sip.

He nearly drops the spoon from the powerful heat of the five-spice broth. His mouth is so hot, he imagines he could blow a blast of paprika-flavoured fire from his lips, like a dragon.That’s how he knows it’s perfect. With a slow exhale to cool his throat, he reaches for the uncooked fire noodles he prepared in a neat pile, searing with spice, and slowly pushes them into the soup with a pair of large metal chopsticks.

The broth bubbles from the added ingredients, and Jisung begins to agitate the pot again leisurely. He’s supposed to set a timer for eight minutes now, but he has done this ritual enough times to just eyeball it at this point.

He confirms the noodles are cooked soon enough, and lets the soup simmer as he walks to the adjacent storage cupboard, pulling out two large porcelain bowls; black on the outside, and a vibrant red inside. Fire Nation colours. His brother would be showing up soon, like clockwork, so he always readies a bowl for him, making sure when he gets back from work he can relax.

Right on time, as Jisung is ladling the soup into the bowls, he can hear keys jingling from outside as the front door swings open. His brother steps into the room, clunky guard shoes making his footsteps less than quiet.

“I’m home!” he says, as he always does.

“I can see that, Taeyong.” Jisung replies, walking over to the dining table and placing their lunch on their respective seats.

Taeyong grunts as he removes his uniform, throwing it unceremoniously onto the floor next to the doorway and revealing his loose shirt and sweats underneath, clinging to his body with sweat from the sweltering summer heat. Sitting next to his brother at the table, he claps and rubs his palms together once he sees the soup in front of him.

“Aw, you made my favourite!” he coos. “How sweet of you, Jisungie.”

“It’s all I know how to make, not because I like you,” Jisung stated. It’s the family recipe.

“It’s all you need to know how to make, trust me. When you travel the world and make this for your friends, they’re going to love you forever.”

“Or hate me, because it’s so spicy.”

Taeyong laughs, “True.”

With that, he picks up a pair of chopsticks delicately and begins eating.

Every Wednesday always went something like this. Taeyong always takes the extra hour to stay behind at work, they need the extra money, so it’s Jisung’s job once every week to make them lunch after he’s done school. Pull his share of weight around the house, so he doesn’t feel as guilty for letting his brother hold them together.

It will never be enough to even the weight between the two, but it’s all he can do, as he is still a student and has no time for side jobs.

“How was work today?” Jisung pipes up, in hopes that he can stop the spiralling of negative thoughts in his brain.

A forced smile takes form on Taeyong’s face. “Oh, you know. Fighting drills, patrol, the usual,” he stops to clear his throat. “Chief says he’s cutting back our salary, they’re cutting back on all costs to, quote unquote, ‘save for the real battle’ or whatever.”

This made the negative thoughts spiral in Jisung’s brain even more. He lowers his head in shame, unable to bring himself to look at the older, “...have you guys even gotten sight of danger?”

Taeyong slumps in his seat, “Not for days. . . but we can’t risk letting our guards down, nobody’s sure what they’re going to do next. We know what the Earth Kingdom can be capable of, I’m just glad I still have my job.”

A long silence follows, only the sound of chopsticks clanging against bowls fills the quiet room. Talking about the War has that effect on everybody in the Fire Nation, especially people who have lost things because of it.

Now, on top of everything, they might not be able to pay rent, and Jisung can’t do anything about it.

“I’m sorry, Taeyong . . .``he mutters.

“What are you apologizing for, silly?” the latter asks, smiling as he finishes the last of his soup.

Jisung sets his utensils down. “Everything . . .”

“Hey, don’t start this again, Jisung. Nobody blames you for our circumstances, I’m doing just fine taking care of us, aren’t I?”

“Well, I blame myself! Things were already bad before when I couldn’t help Mom and Dad…” Jisung trailed off. It’s too painful of a memory. He exhales before he continues; soft, in a sort of defeated, regretful manner. “, and now this is happening, and there’s nothing I can do to help. I’m useless, dead weight.”

“Hey,” Taeyong reaches his hand across the table, and places it on his brother’s shoulder. “None of this is your fault. Mom and Dad’s death was a terrible accident, if you did anything, we don’t know if you would still be alive, you know that.”

Jisung turns his head away from him, not wanting to relive what happened that day. A sigh escapes Taeyong’s lips, an overwhelming feeling of protectiveness spreading throughout his body like a wildfire. “And now. . .now there’s nothing anybody can do, unless you can somehow end the War, which nobody has been able to do for over eighty years,” he pauses to chuckle at the impossibility, waiting for Jisung to do the same. He does not.

Taeyong clears his throat, “Anyways, you don’t have to feel upset that you can’t get a job and help me out right now, because I’m not asking you to. You’re doing enough for me by being such a great student, and even better company, as my baby brother.” he pinches Jisung’s cheek for emphasis. “You’re such a hard worker, and you’ve got the passion to do anything to set your mind to, just like Mom and Dad.” The younger of the two scoffs, but they both know he’s just flattered.

“Now, I know I can’t tell what the future has in store for us, but I can just feel you’re going to do something amazing one day.” Taeyong sounds so sure of himself, and his confidence rubs off on Jisung’s low spirits. His face slightly brightens, and he turns his gaze to meet his brother’s.

“Thank you . . . that really means a lot to me,” Jisung tells him.

“You don’t need to thank me. We’re going to be just fine, okay? It doesn’t matter what the world throws at us.”

Jisung nods, “Okay.”

“Good. Can you bring the pot over, now? I’m starving.”

“You’ve been here for five minutes, how did you finish so fast?”

“Hey, respect your elders, punk. Soup. Now.”

“Okay, okay.”

Jisung begrudgingly stands up and makes his way towards the kitchen, swiftly avoiding Taeyong’s deadly hand ready to pinch his cheek again.

He lifts the large pot from the stove carefully, arms lightly straining from the weight.

“I made way too much, so uh, eat as much as you want!” he says, slowly making his way back to the table.

Taeyong cheers. “I could eat a whole bear right—Jisung watch out!”

“What do you—woah!”

Jisung is abruptly thrown off balance as his foot accidentally makes contact with an old sock strewn on the floor. He is sent sliding forward, the giant pot slipping from his grasp and launching its contents into the air, right towards Taeyong.

Finally regaining his balance, Jisung throws the sock across the room, effectively landing in the laundry basket, and pivots back around to launch himself forward, arms outstretched in front of him, ready to push Taeyong out of the way and take the hit for him. A big, soupy hit.

All at once, his brain begins to act quicker than his body has time to comprehend, a switch activating within that he barely even registers. A cold shock slowly  _ pang _ ’s from his core, spreading from his chest, through the veins in his arms, into the very tips of his fingers. Some spark seems to have awakened inside of him, a gift that has been lying dormant for a very long time.

The cool current of water, coursing through his own body, has finally surfaced into his conscious.

The energy seeps past his fingers at once, and Jisung watches, both in astonishment and utter horror, as the soup begins to halt its movement in midair.

He can do nothing but stand and stare as the liquid combines in front of his eyes and condenses into one giant sphere, hovering inches from his face.

“Don’t move,” Taeyong breathes, eyes wide in astonishment.

“What the fuck do you think I’m doing?!” he retaliates, completely focused on the power suspending the soup in the air.

He looks around, frantic as his brother scrambles for the discarded pot on the carpet and places it upright on the table. Taeyong calmly turns his gaze to Jisung’s confused one, and says something none of them once thought he would need to say.

“Do you think you can waterbend the soup back into the pot?”

Jisung’s jaw hangs open as if he just asked him to eat his own foot. “Can I wh- are you  _ insane?” _

“You’re waterbending the fucking soup, Jisung, try bending it back into the pot!”

“I am  _ not _ a waterbender, there - that’s impossible, you know that, right?”

“Well how the fuck else did you stop the spill?!”

“I didn’t! This isn’t me, there’s no way I’m the one doing this. I’m a  _ firebender _ , you’ve seen me!”

“Drop your hands then!”

“Fine!”

Jisung does as Taeyong asked, and the soup-sphere promptly drops out of the air, as predicted. Panicking, he yelps and outstretches his hands once more, feeling the same push throughout his body as he catches it, feet spreading far apart to keep his balance.

“This isn’t real this isn’t real this isn’t real,” he mutters, as he slowly lifts his hands upwards, and the soup floats up with them. He narrows his eyes in concentration, and shifts his hands to the side, attempting to position the soup ball right above the open pot, hopefully so he can drop it in peacefully.

The process takes around a minute or two, as Jisung’s aim has never been stellar and Taeyong is talking his ear off, delegating the soup directions. “A little left, now right, no wait back to left, now right again - “

“Oh my Spirits, can you shut up for a second? You aren’t helping!” Jisung demands, frustrated.

Taeyong raises his hands in defeat, “Alright fine, but if it spills that’s on you!” he says, to which the latter huffs in clear irritation.

Jisung returns to his concentrated state, moving the liquid this way and that until it is roughly in line with the pot opening.

Finally, and unceremoniously, he drops his hands and the soup successfully falls into the pot. Small droplets ricochet onto their faces from the less than perfect placement, but most of it is contained and that’s all Jisung cares about.

He feels his body begin to rest from its hyperactive state, but the intense adrenaline rush is still running a marathon in his brain.

None of them know what to do or say besides stare at each other wide-eyed after that, Jisung staring at his shaking hands, eyes wide. Taeyong opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. Addressing the situation would make it more real.

Thus, a long moment of silence cuts in, neither brother knowing how to explain what had happened.

“Can you say something?” Jisung asks, tired of Taeyong staring at him, studying his every move.

“I—what do you want me to say?” he snaps.

“Anything!”

Taeyong pushes a frustrated breath past his lips, covering his forehead with his hand and pushing his hair back, slightly damp with sweat. What  _ do  _ you say when you realize your brother is the Avatar, the most wanted person in the entire country?

He scratches the back of his head and exhales, lips pursed. “Damnit,” he mutters, “I was begging for you never to figure it out.”

Jisung raises a brow in confusion. “Find out what? What are you talking about?”

“Isn’t it obvious? You’re the Avatar, you idiot!”

Another minute of silence begins. He knows that it’s true; there is no other way to explain the soup fiasco, and the peculiar new feeling inside of him that somehow will not subside, but the weight of that title now presses against his chest like the tip of a sword: Dangerous.

It  _ should  _ be a great honour to inherit the name, as the Avatar used to be a hero, the connection between the human and spirit realms. Using their unique abilities, they could bend all four elements and keep peace and harmony in the four nations of the world. They were idolized and worshipped for centuries, welcomed with open arms anywhere they went, and seen as a figure of light and hope.

That was almost one hundred years ago.

Now, all Jisung knows is that the Avatar is a wanted criminal and must be killed on sight.

His legs wobble under his weight. “Fuck,” he whispers, exasperated. “What do I do?”

“I…” Taeyong starts, but stops himself and sighs. “I don’t know. I hoped you’d never even find out— _ shit _ , why now out of all days—“

“You knew?”

Jisung’s shocked voice cuts through Taeyong’s train of thought. The older nods, “I knew.”

“How?”

Taeyong sighs. “Mom. . .she told me.”

“You knew since  _ Mom  _ was here?” Jisung raises his tone, his face morphing into an expression neither of them have seen before. With the war on, secrets were a luxury they couldn’t have, so how could he keep this from him?

“I didn’t say anything because I wanted to keep you safe!” Taeyong yells. “You’re my brother, Jisung, and I’m your  _ only _ guardian now. I made a promise to Mom to keep you out of harm’s way that night, and being the Avatar is a crime punishable by death! Do you know how terrified I am every day that-that you’re going to be found out?”

Jisung scrunches his nose, eyebrows narrowing. “It’s my life, you have no right to decide what I should or shouldn’t know about it!”

“Listen to me! Do you even know what this means for your future?”

“What, stop the war? I should have started that a long fucking time ago, but  _ somebody  _ kept their little secret to themself!”

“Our parents are dead because of this war, Jisung!”

“Our parents are dead because none of you told me I was the Avatar!” Jisung clenches his fists at his sides, his tone sharp, cutting through the silent house with every word.

“Don’t bring them into this,” Taeyong snaps, enraged. “They were trying to help you!”

“I don’t blame them,” Jisung starts, looking him dead in the eyes. “I blame you.”

Taeyong freezes, and Jisung can tell he felt what he said. He takes a step back, probably in shock, and Jisung doesn’t move to comfort him. He’s had enough.

The former opens his mouth to reply, but a knock on the front door causes the pair of them to snap out of their argument and whip their heads over to the door.

“Fuck,” Taeyong says. “They’re here.”

≈

“Sun Soldiers, open up!” someone says, voice muffled from the closed door.

Jisungs muscles contract, freezing him in place. He looks to his brother, “You didn’t tell me it was today!”

“I didn’t know it  _ was _ today! That’s not my department!” Taeyong replies, running a hand through his hair.

“Well—what am I supposed to do?” Faking it is seemingly not an option for Jisung, this recent discovery rendering his bending uncontrollable. He isn’t sure when something will happen next.

Another knock, louder this time, interrupts the conversation, the same voice as before invading the space. “We know you’re in there, open up or we will be authorized to use force.”

Taeyong’s hair sticks up in all directions from the amount of times he’s been combing it with his hand. “Shit, okay let me handle this,” he says, walking towards the door. “Don’t move. Just—don’t do anything with your hands, I’m going to figure this out.”

Jisung nods, folding his fingers together in front of him as the former pulls the door open, just a little, to peek his head through at the military officers standing out front. Taeyong’s figure blocks out their appearances, but he can only imagine that it’s the same people from six months ago. And last year. And every year before that.

Nevertheless, they are greeted politely and formally by the older. “Good afternoon, officers, what brings you to my home?”

“You know why we’ve come,” they say. “His Highness ordered for another nationwide test this year. He’s impatient.”

“Ah, the test to find the Avatar--”

“Do not mention that name!” the officer’s curt tone silences Taeyong. “But yes, that’s why we’re here. That’s why we always come.”

It’s true, thrice every year the great Fire Lord orders his Sun Soldiers to come by their house, along with every other house in the Fire Nation, in search for the Avatar. For eighteen years, the search has been unsuccessful, but the more the Earth Kingdom gains on them from the North, the less time they have to keep their land.

“What will you do to, you know who, when you find them?” Taeyong asks.

“We are ordered to kill them on sight. Along with those who aided in their secrecy.”

It’s an eighteen year long manhunt.

Jisung’s heart rate skyrockets, palms sweating from how tightly his hands are clasped together. He already knew what they would do to the Avatar once they found them, but he didn’t know that they were hunting  _ him  _ before now. Oh Spirits, Taeyong, fix this.

His brother clears his throat, forcing out a breathy chuckle. “Right,” he says, “Well, you know it isn’t me, I was born before Avatar Dejun’s death! So, you two best be on your way, sorry for your trouble.”

“We aren’t here for you, Taeyong. We’re here for your younger brother. Jisung, is it not?”

Fuck. Taeyong looks back at him, and Jisung’s body trembles, eyes wide with fear, and they both know he can’t let the soldiers come inside. He turns back around, once again blocking Jisung’s view.

“Sorry, he’s not in right now, he’s just out with a few school friends.” He says.

The second soldier, a deeper voice, who has been silent this whole time, responds, “Who were you just looking at then?”

“Pardon?”

“You were looking inside for a moment. You’re worried, because he  _ is _ inside, isn’t he?”

Taeyong pauses for a beat. “Even if he was, he’s not who you’re looking for.”

“We’ll only take up a minute of your time, sir.” the first man says. “Besides, if he really isn’t who we’re looking for, then there’s nothing to worry about.”

Taeyong turns to look back inside, chewing on his lower lip. He looks back at the officers. Then back at Jisung. Then, he looks at the two men once more and says “He’ll be right out, he just needs to freshen up. Wait out here for a few moments!” before slamming the door in their faces, locking it as well.

Jisung gapes, “What the-”

“I lied,” Taeyong starts, opening the front closet and rifling through it, plucking out a small, worn brown satchel. “Watch the door, don’t let them in,” and he dumps the satchel’s contents onto the floor, afterwards moving to the kitchen with the empty bag.

“What are you doing?” Jisung asks, following his brother with his eyes. The answer, however, slowly reveals itself as he watches Taeyong pack the satchel with fruit and fresh bread.

“You’re leaving. Now,” he replies, eyes fixated on the task in front of him. “Get your shoes on and grab your savings, put it all in this bag.”

“What--Taeyong! You’re coming with me, right?” Jisung asks, but a loud banging coming from the front door interrupts his train of thought, injecting more panic into his system.

“We won’t wait out here forever! Open up, or we will have to use force!” an officer yells through the wood.

Taeyong becomes more hasty in his packing. “I can’t come with you, get your shoes on  _ now!” _

Jisung, heart pounding and confused, darts for his simplest shoes and slips them on before running to his brother’s side. Taeyong places a bottle of water in with the food, and thrusts the bag towards him. Jisung fumbles for the handle, holding it to his chest.

“What’s happening?” Jisung asks, voice quiet, smaller than usual.

Taeyong rests a hand on the taller’s shoulder. “You have to go, Jisung,” He says. “If you don’t, these officers will barge in through the door and have you killed before you can stop the War.”

“The War?’

“Yes, the War. I know all of this is crazy, I think it’s fucked up too! But it’s the duty of the Avatar to create balance in the world again. The Earth Kingdom has not stopped continuing where Avatar Seulgi left off, they’re still hungrier than ever for revenge from the first war. It’s up to you to stop them, Jisung, you  _ have _ to stop them. We lost our parents because of this, you can stop this from taking anybody else.”

Tears threaten to spill from Jisung’s eyes. “I can’t do this,” he whispers.

Taeyong forces a smile. “If anybody can do it, it’s you.”

Jisung pulls his brother into a tight hug, squeezing with everything he has. This could be the last time he gets to do this. Taeyong squeezes back, briefly, then lightly pushes him away.

“Mom gave me a map,” his brother says, handing him a yellowish paper, folding creases wearing down the material. “to the Southern Air Temple. It’s said the only known Air Nomad community live there, they can teach you Airbending. I’m sorry I’ve been holding you back from your journey, but it’s time for you to start it.”

Jisung places the paper in the satchel with trembling hands, and throws the bag’s strap over his shoulder. His throat burns with the sobs he’s held in, and he nods at his brother.

“I’ll come back. I’ll fix this, I promise,” he says, giving him one last hug before he goes.

Taeyong smiles, and rubs Jisung’s back to calm him. He brushes his brother’s dark hair away from his face, “You can--”

A tremendous rumble causes both of them to flinch. The military officers have kicked down the front door, rifles pointed forward, furious.

Taeyong roughly shoves Jisung, causing him to stumble backwards, falling through the back door and landing on the pavement. “Go!” he yells, “Go to the ship docks, get  _ out _ of here!”

Jisung can only watch as his brother, his only family, is pushed against the wall and handcuffed by the Fire Lord’s men. His eyes are wide with horror as he watches, his brother desperately nudging his head for Jisung to leave. He is now, officially, alone.

And it’s up to him to save the entire world from destruction. Spirits, is this how all the Avatars felt?

Taeyong’s words echo in his head, repeating his instructions, and he scrambles to his feet as the officers turn to him. He hastily takes off, speeding through the back gate and leaps over flower beds into the town’s main square. He ignores their yells for him to stop.

The town is quite small, only a few thousand or so residents populating it, but boy is it ever busy today. The summer turnover has just begun, and all the seasonal plants are in their prime. To celebrate this, every year a market is held to sell these plants at a crazy marked down price, lasting for five days total. On the last day, a grand show of fireworks is performed to commemorate the occasion. So, in short, everybody and their second cousins are in town.

Jisung shoves past a never-ending stream of adults with hand-woven baskets in hand, and he mutters unheard apologies as they squeak and scold in surprise. He can barely hear the officer’s calls for him over his pounding heart ringing in his ears, but he can see the look on the townspeople’s faces that they’re calling him the Avatar.

He spares a look behind him, and they’re gaining on him fast as the crowd clears for them, their red and black tunics and armour glistening in the afternoon sun. 

“The Avatar!” they call, “Make way, the Avatar is on the loose!”

Jisung turns onto a nearly empty side street, glancing forwards, then behind him to check his progress. His throat throbs from the large amount of running he’s doing, but it only reminds him of how important it is that he keeps going. He starts to pant, and looks behind him one more time to see if the men have followed him. They haven’t yet, which is good news, but instead he crashes right into a family vegetable stand, knocking all the air out of his lungs.

From the speed he was running, he nearly pushes the whole stand over, but a hand grips his arm to prevent him from toppling into the adjacent wall.

“Watch where you’re going, lunatic!” says the stranger, pulling Jisung upright.

A young boy man stops him, not looking much older than he is. His light brown hair tousles with the warm breeze, the light casting a halo-like shadow over his head. His eyes are narrow, accusatory, and his lips are curled into a frown, most likely at him. Tanned skin colours his body, and a plain black traditional robe covers most of his figure. Jisung doubles over in front of him, panting.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking. . .where I was going.” he manages, voice hoarse from the sprint.

“It’s whatever, at least you didn’t knock my stand over.” the boy responds, lighthearted. “You’re lucky my parents aren’t here. What are you running so fast for?”

Jisung looks up at him, wiping the sweat off his forehead. “Some guys are, uh, chasing me for no reason.”

On cue, the military officers’ calls for the Avatar echo throughout the streets. They turn the corner, catching sight of Jisung and the other boy. “There he is! Stop him!”

The boy eyes the officers’ uniforms and badges, then turns back to Jisung. “No reason, eh? You sure?”

Jisung jolts upright and yanks his arm away from the stranger. “I. . .have to go. Bye!” he says, and takes off once more.

With the Fire Lord’s men hot on his heels, he bounds through streets and alleyways, jumping over food carts and pushing past more people. The town he lives on is buried in a small valley, so he must turn onto an uphill street to make it to the boat harbour. If he wasn’t tired before, this could get him caught.

As he pushes himself up the street, he catches sight of a particular pair of people carrying a rather large pile of logs, one of them at the front and one at the back. Probably for the ceremonial bonfire tonight. They’re smiling, bobbing their heads to a nearby street musician’s tune. Jisung purposely rams into the man at the front, sending the logs barreling down the hill, and he checks behind him to see the officers tumbling down with them. Bless his height and brawn for that one.

Before his victim can curse him out, Jisung is off speeding up the road again. He can’t afford to look back anymore, that was too close.

Legs straining, he spots the town’s main harbour on the other side of the street. It’s full of people climbing into their boats, cluttering the bay in preparation for the day’s celebrations. He tilts his head back, groaning. Could anything come easy today?

He scans the docks, looking for any empty boat,  _ anything _ to get him out of the Fire Nation. Nothing at first glance. Chest tightening, he speedwalks down the boat harbourfront, checking behind him for the men chasing him.

He keeps walking down, and by some miracle, there sits one small, wooden sailboat tied to a small dock. There are three vacant seats, a fourth one hidden by a few green rags laying on top of it. The wood making up the boat was peeling and faded, weathered with use, and the sail was white and thin. This would have to do. Not thinking twice, or knowing who this boat belongs to, Jisung hops inside and cuts the rope tying it to the dock. He lets out a breath he had no idea he was holding.

As the boat wobbles from the new weight, he rummages around the cockpit for another rope, attached to the sail. Wrapping it around his palm, he pulls it tight and holds onto the shifty tiller beside him, steering the boat southeast. The warm breeze catches on the sail, and he drifts away from the mainland.

Out at sea, the wind speed is greatly stronger, taking him a lot farther out in a short amount of time. His eyes remain forwards, gripping the rope for dear life as he attempts to steer himself away from all the other, better boats congregated in the bay. He’s tempted to look back, give his home one last goodbye before he sets off on his journey with a heavy heart. He almost does.

A faint call by a couple familiar voices filters into his ears from the shore, saying “Stop that boat!”, frantic, but he strains his eyes to keep his head from turning. He thinks of his brother again, telling him that he can do this,  _ if anybody can do this, it’s you _ . He thinks of how he was thrown to the ground by those soldiers. How he probably won’t stay alive for long in prison. How his parents were killed to keep his identity a secret. It’s not fair to them to look back, to regret. He has to repay them.

He has to stop this War, this killing. If not for anyone else, for his family.

The breeze is cooler now, telling him he is far enough out at sea. He opens the main flap of his satchel, his lifeline, and unfolds the old map he was given. A large set of islands sit themselves just north of the Southern Water Tribe, emphasized by a bold, red circle around them. That must be his destination. His mission. He looks up at the sky, at the sun floating above him, and turns the sailboat in the opposite direction.

If the Southern Air Temple is his only hope, then so be it. His journey has begun.

≈

“What was all that ruckus down there?” an old woman asks, hobbling her way over to the mess the family vegetable stand has become. Fresh squash rolls down the brick road, covered in dirt. Stacks of corn and tomatoes the family prepared lay strewn across the small kiosk, and their baskets of beans are toppled over heartlessly.

Donghyuck sighs, already knowing the storm his family is about to unleash on him.  _ The summer market is everything! The farm is their livelihood, their main source of income,  _ his mother will say.  _ Being so careless with our profit to let some idiot send it rolling down the road? Unacceptable, do you want us to starve? _ his father will chime in. All of them at once, reminding him that they should not trust him with anything important.

And they do. Until he sees the sunset, he is standing out in the sweltering sun as they scream and growl insults. He does not say a word in response, however. Just lets them run their course. Maybe he deserves it, after all the times he’s caused them trouble. Maybe he deserves it.

He’s fixing the vegetable display when the military officers he saw earlier that day approach him. They are both taller than him, broader than him, adorning many medals on their tailored robes. One is slightly shorter than the other, with a dark beard and a striking bald head, while the other’s thick curls accentuated his piercing gaze.

“Hello sir, could you spare a few minutes of your time?” the bearded man asks, gruff and breathy.

Donghyuck shrugs. “I guess so.”

The man clears his throat, “We saw you earlier, talking to a loose fugitive we are in the process of capturing. Do you know him, by any chance?”

“No sir. He bumped into my kiosk by accident, and was just apologizing.”

“I see. We would like to inform you that the boy you were speaking with was the Avatar.”

Donghyuck nods, still sorting the corn in the right arrangement. He figured as much.

The officer lets out a frustrated sigh, and bares his eyes right through his own. Deep purple lines tire his features. “We’ll be sending out a large search warrant, ordering for his capture or assassination. Since you ran into him, you’re one of the first to know. if you’re interested, a large reward will be offered if you find him and bring him to the Fire Lord,” he gives his kiosk and his family sitting inside through the window a once over, “it looks like you need it.”

Donghyuck grimaces, taking a step back. Is their poverty that noticeable?

“We’ll give you a moment to think about it.” the man says, and turns to whisper to his partner.

And think about it he does. He’s the only Firebender in the family, and he’s trained himself in combat. Maybe he could do this?

No way, he’s just some kid from a small town with big dreams. There’s no way he could be a war hero! That’s for other people, not short farm boys.

He looks at the officers, at their desperate faces. He looks back at his family , his parents and grandparents and cousins praying at their broken table. Rubbing his face with a dirty cloth, he clears his throat, causing the soldiers to hastily spin around. The Avatar is a killer anyway, he deserves it.

“What did you say I had to do again?”


	2. The Southern Air Temple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Where is everybody?” he asks nobody in particular, pushing himself to his feet and dusting off his clothes.
> 
> He puts his hands on his hips, squinting in the daylight and looking every which way for people. Because he is stupid, he isn’t looking up into the sky for people. So, that is why he is surprised when he gets ambushed from above by a seemingly large group of folks, all dropping from above at once.

_ “Get behind me!” _

_ Jisung shuffled his tiny feet backwards and shielded himself behind his mother’s leg. She kept him in place with a gentle hand on the back of his head. _

_ “Don’t you dare touch my son,” she says, brittle and cold. _

_ The masked man in front of them clenched his fists, “We are under orders to eliminate all Fire Nation scum from this village, nobody is excluded. I hope you understand.” _

_ The intruder widened his stance, knees bent. He lifted his hands above his head, and a large chunk of their house floor rose from the ground and bounded straight towards them upon his thrusting arm motion. _

_ Jisung’s mother expertly dodged the attack, picking up her young son and jumping to the side. She placed him by the back doorway, covering him from the intruder. _

_ “Mom, what’s going on?” _

_ “You must go,” she exclaimed, stroking his damp hair, “it’s not safe for you here. Go find your brother, he’s waiting for you outside.” _

_ Jisung latched onto her fingers. “I don’t wanna go! Are you coming? What about dad?” _

_ “I. . .I’ll catch up, okay? Your father and I have to finish up in here. Now go, be good, okay?” his mother smiled, warm and loving, in the way she always smiled at him. Even in that situation she managed to make it brighter, for him. He would never forget her smile, her face, the way her thin black hair was chopped to frame her jawline, her soft almond eyes. He would never forget. _

_ “No! I’ll fight with you,” he said, scrunching his nose and narrowing his eyes. _

_ She chuckles, “Oh, Jisung. It is not your time yet to begin that part of your journey. So much awaits you in the future, you mustn’t start it now. Here, take this,” she placed a small necklace in his hand, a minuscule compass linked to its chain. It was lightweight, and Jisung had to hold it with both hands so as not to drop it. “Take this with you, alright? Whenever you’re lost, look at it, and you will always find your way home. Now go, hurry.” _

_ He let her soft hands lightly nudge him out the door, and he waddled down the pebble-lined pathway to find his older brother. His hands grew sweaty as he clung to the necklace. _

_ He only made it halfway to the street before he heard the curdling screams of his mother from inside the house. _

Jisung jolts awake, sitting upright in the boat, panting. It jostles back and forth in the calm sea, and he clutches the sides to stabilize it.

With the back of his hand, he wipes the sweat off his forehead, his dark hair unsticking from his skin and instead matting on top of his head.

Sighing, he drags his hand down the rest of his face, taking extra time to rub the sleep out of his eyes. He hasn’t had that nightmare in years. Well, it wasn’t a nightmare more than it was a memory, but memories from back then are things Jisung would rather keep locked away.

Looking out, the water seems to stretch on forever, no shadow nor piece of land in sight. The light of the morning sun beats down on the deep blue, beams of light jumping along the calm ripples in an eloquent dance, both calming and blinding to Jisung’s eyes.

Great, he’s lost.

He feels for the compass around his neck, a gift from his mother from long ago, and grabs the map given by his brother. Setting it out in front of him, he attempts to pinpoint where he is.

He seems to be southeast of his home town, in the ocean connecting the land of the Fire Nation and the Southern Air Temple. Or, does the arrow mean he’s north? No, that just means that’s where north is, right?

Maybe it’s the sea playing tricks on him, but he’s forgotten how to read a compass.

Jisung brings his knees up to his chest, dismissing the rocking of the boat from his actions and holds his head in his hands. He had once chance at finding the Air Temple, and he fucking blew it. Taeyong was counting on him, the  _ world  _ was counting on him, and he blew it. Taeyong might even be dead by now at the hand of his own nation’s army. He’s a failure.

“Fuck,” he whispers, blinking back tears.

He sits like this for a while, trying to find calm in the quiet of the resting sea. He lets the sounds of the water lapping at the boat soothe his conscious, and he breathes deep, regulating his emotions.

Then, he suddenly finds it harder to breathe. Lifting his head up, a thick mist clouds his vision in all directions.

Alert, he turns his head and squints, making out small shadows of objects passing by beside him. Enemy boats? Icebergs? He can’t tell, but goosebumps crawl up the skin on his forearms regardless.

He grabs onto the rope attached to the sail, and coils it around his palm. There’s no wind, but control of the sail wouldn’t hurt anybody. His heartbeat increases in speed, but he is forced to keep drifting forward into the fog.

The mist. . .maybe it’s a sign that he’s getting close. An enormous shadow takes form the farther he drifts, getting bigger and bigger in shape and darker, casting a shadow over him and his boat. A gulp is forced down his throat.

The mist slowly lessens in intensity the farther in he goes, and it opens into a small clearing, the large shadow taking the form of an even bigger, ragged rock face. The gray clouds above have parted to create a circular opening in the sky, revealing the pale sun’s rays to illuminate the land. The rock is separated in five stair-like carvings, far too large to step across, but each harbouring an overflowing bed of grass and weeds. In comparison to Jisung’s rickety wooden boat hull, it seems like a velvet cushion. He nearly salivates at the thought.

The rocky steps lead up to something, a few structures positioned high atop the land, but covered in shadow. Jisung scrambles for his map, flipping it this way and that and finds the little illustration of the Southern Air Temple drawn onto it. It sits atop a large rock, very similar to the one standing before him. A giggle bubbles up past his throat at the realization. Maybe he  _ wasn’t  _ a failure after all.

His boat bumps into the base of the island and Jisung presses his hand to the rock face. Long, forest green vines hang from the top of the first step to the bottom, tangling around his fingers as he touches the stone. He takes the rope around his palm and ties it right around one of these vines, anchoring his boat. It’s time to climb.

Normally, one finds the Air Temple far above the water, riding atop a sky bison or using a hot air balloon, being able to dock immediately in their destination, but it seems that Jisung has his work cut out for him. Putting all his gear in his satchel, he grabs hold of the slippery vines and pulls himself upward, planting the balls of his feet on the rock and inching his hands further up the plants as he goes. His upper body strength is not something to brag about, and his arms strain greatly each time he pulls, but nonetheless he keeps going.

When he’s halfway up he falters, the wet slime coating the vines making him slide downward and his feet lose grip on the wall. He clenches his fists with everything he has to stop sliding and aggressively kicks the air to get a grip on the wall again, taking a moment to catch his breath. With a sharp inhale, he regains focus and pulls himself up again.

Every step, every grunt, and every strain on his biceps pays off because around a half hour later, he tosses himself onto the rocky landing. As soon as his body hits the plush grass, every muscle he has relaxes and he sighs in relief, letting his body go limp for a moment. A long moment.

Rolling onto his back, legs spread out, he looks up at how far he has to go, and frowns when he counts the four other steps he has to climb.

“There’s no way I’m gonna get all the way up there today,” he says to himself, breathily. He moves his arm to push himself into a sitting position, groaning at the pain, “Ow, my arms!”

A different grunt is heard from nearby, and it isn’t made by him. It’s more of an animalistic grunt, deep and raspy, coming from something other than human. Raising a brow, Jisung looks around the landing, and lo and behold a small fluffy creature lays atop the grass and moss, grazing. Well, large for its kind, it was still the size of Jisung himself, and triple his width. A large arrow-shaped stripe of fur stretches across its back, curving over its head and stopping just before it’s eyes. It holds itself up with three legs on each side of its body, slowly pushing itself across the stretch of grass they both sit on. It’s a young sky bison, settling down for lunch.

Jisung has never encountered such a species before, in school he was taught they are native to the Air Temples exclusively. With their large bodies and loud roars, they are helpful in battle but most importantly, lifelong friends to the Air Nomads. Huh.

“Hey, little guy. Er, big guy? I dunno how old you are,” Jisung starts, scratching the back of his head. “Why are you all the way down here by yourself? There’s probably more grass up above.”

The bison grunts in reply, taking a mouthful of moss and chewing sloppily. Jisung wipes some wet excess from it’s meal off his pants.

“Right, can’t talk,” he pauses to think, “But, I know you can fly, right? That’s what sky bison like, do?”

The bison pays him no mind.

“You mind helping me get to your village up at the top, then? I need to talk to the air people.”

No protest from the large animal, so Jisung takes this as a maybe and pushes himself to his feet, walking over to the creature and gingerly touching it’s fur. Still no reaction, so he swings a leg over its backside and mounts it, resting his hands on either side of its thick neck. “Thanks for being chill about this. Okay, up we go!”

Nothing happens. No flying, except the bison does belch very loud.

Jisung blinks a few times, and tries again, “Up up! Hut hut! Come on, I really need to get up there!”

No movement.

“Please, I promise I will work out every day for the rest of my life so I will never need your help again. Up up!”

The bison resumes its grazing.

Jisung groans, “Ugh. Okay, I swear I learned what to say to these in class. Yup yup? No, uh, Yep yup. Hup hip? Yip yip?”

Before he knows it, the creature stops eating and propels itself upward, beginning its descent into the sky. The speed in which this happens alarms Jisung, and he clutches onto the bison’s fur for dear life as it twists and turns and flips upside down. And yes, he screams when it flips upside down.

“Stop spinning! Go in a straight line—I’m gonna puke!”

Investing in some reigns, Jisung thinks, would be a wonderful idea.

However, the bison is doing as asked, and soars past each step of rock with ease, the buildings atop the mountain becoming more and more visible. Shielding his face from the sun, he lays his eyes upon what might be the most peaceful place he’s ever seen.

One long, shallow ramp zigzags its way to the civilization of the Southern Air Temple. Parts of the ramp branch off and lead to small white houses, roofs blue like the ocean below and surrounded by lush green trees filling in the space between homes. The roofs shine under the sun like sapphire, adding a level of relaxation into the atmosphere making Jisung exhale in awe.

The base of the temple is larger than the top, the little houses inching upwards and upwards to reveal one massive tower, rising above all the other buildings and overlooking the entire area, a blue spire atop it reaching the clouds and cutting through them. This place looked like paradise.

The bison plops itself down on a little fork in one of the many pathways lining the temple, giving its body a shake and sending Jisung toppling to the floor next to it. He splats onto the pavement like a flipped coin, giving a noise of pain to the rude animal before propping himself up with his elbows. He takes a gander at his surroundings for any potential teachers wandering about. Nobody seems to be out for the day. Strange, the weather was just looking up.

“Where is everybody?” he asks nobody in particular, pushing himself to his feet and dusting off his clothes.

He puts his hands on his hips, squinting in the daylight and looking every which way for people. Because he is stupid, he isn’t looking up into the sky for people. So, that is why he is surprised when he gets ambushed from above by a seemingly large group of folks, all dropping from above at once.

They surround him in a circle and land on the ground with the lightest  _ thud _ he’s ever heard, all collectively pointing giant wooden sticks at him. Maybe sticks isn’t the right word for it, they seem to be expertly carved in a specific way and have little openings in the sides for something to slip out. What that something is, he isn’t sure, but he is startled nonetheless at the ambush.

“Who are you, Fire Nation boy? Why were you riding one of our sky bison?” one of them asks, a tall man, head shaved bald but what he lacks on top of his head, makes up for in eyebrows.

“Who are you with?” chimes another.

Jisung manages to stammer an “I come in peace?”, and raises his hands in a pitiful attempt to get them to lower their sticks.

“You haven’t answered our questions, who are you and why were you on one of our bison?” Eyebrows bellows.

“Uh!” Jisung starts, “How do you know I’m Fire Nation?”

“Your clothes! Do you take us for fools?”

Jisung looks down at himself. His black sweatpants look like anybody could wear them, but the deep red sleeveless robe around his shoulders, gold at the seams and tied around his waist by a matching thin gold belt, probably gives it right away.

“Now,” Eyebrows says, “Answer our questions, or face the wrath of the Air Nomads of the Southern Temple. We will not be forced to comply with Fire Nation wishes any longer!”

“No, no you have me all wrong!” Jisung replies, “I’m the A—I’m the Avatar, and—“

He is abruptly cut off by another ambusher’s exclamation. “You’re the  _ what?  _ Even worse! Leave us now, you terrible being!”

“Yeah! The Avatar is not welcome here!” someone else adds. “The last Avatar turned on the world and created another War!”

Right. His predecessor  _ had  _ to fuck everything up for him, huh.

Jisung moves his hand to bite his nails, but clenches his fist before he gets the chance. “I’m not like Avatar Dejun, I promise! Look guys,” He turns his head to get a glimpse of the villagers of the Temple, “I know the past years have been rough because of my predecessor. Dejun was supposed to be the protector of the people, but instead turned his back on them and convinced the Earth Kingdom they needed to take revenge on the Fire Nation for the Hundred Year War. And, I know the Fire Nation hasn’t been dealing with it very well. I don’t know what they’re doing exactly, but it’s not working. I’m not here to cause more damage, I’ve been hurt from this war, too. I’m here because I want to put an end to it once and for all.”

Eyebrows narrows his eyes, struck by his statement. “How can we trust you? You’ve been letting the world go to chaos for eighteen years!”

“My family kept my identity secret until now. Nobody was even going to tell me, I had to figure it out on my own.”

Someone speaks out against him, “He has to be lying! The Avatar is no longer good, we can’t trust him after the last one!”

The others chime in, agreeing. They drop their sticks around him, lowering into a fighting stance. Then, a voice stops them from continuing.

“Wait!” it says, from somewhere outside the circle. “Don’t do anything, he’s just a kid!”

The owner of this voice pushes two of Jisung’s ambushers apart, stepping into the circle and drawing their attention. It is a young man, perhaps a couple years older than Jisung himself, with wavy dark brown hair and dark, warm eyes to match. He’s tall, only a little shorter than him, and relatively muscular, he can tell even with the baggy yellow Air Nomad robes on. He has the traditional orange flaps sewn around the chest part of the robes, and the arm sleeves leave enough room for him to see his blue arrow tattoos and follow them up his arms, all the way to his forehead, where he can see it only because the man is pushing his hair out of his face. Speaking of which, he doesn’t look very happy.

“Jaemin, go back into town. You don’t want to see this,” Eyebrows says.

“Quiet,” The man, Jaemin, hisses. “I want to hear what the boy has to say. It isn’t fair to judge him based on things he has no control over.”. He looks to Jisung, “Speak now, kid.”

“Right! Uh, what was I saying—oh yes! The past Avatar has done terrible, inexcusable things, but it is my duty to set them right and stop the Earth Kingdom. I’ve lost too much from this War, and I know you all must have, too. I’m not here to pity you or to magically fix everything now, because I have a  _ ton _ to learn. But I know that right here at this temple are the only Airbending masters out there, and air is the first element I have to master in the Avatar cycle, we all know how that goes.”

“After fire it’s air, then water, then earth, yes. So, you haven’t come to kill us?” an ambusher asks, standing up out of her offensive stance.

“No! That’s not what I want at all, I need a teacher, and it has to be one of you. Please, somebody step up.”

The Airbenders around him stay silent. Jisung chews at his nails and looks around at them, hoping. This is his only chance at starting his journey.

Across from him, Jaemin bites his lip, looking at everybody’s mouths tight and shut. He sighs, “I’ll do it. I’ll teach the Avatar to Airbend.”

The Air Nomads gasp around him. Jisung lets out a long breath.

“Jaemin, are you sure?” The girl from before asks.

“Well, nobody else is offering, and if he is who he says he is he needs a teacher or we’re all screwed.”

After a long pause, Eyebrows nods, “Very well. We will send our youngest master to teach you, whatever-your-name-is.”

“Jisung.” he supplies for them.

“Everyone stand down, then. Stay for the night, Avatar Jisung. We will see you both off at daybreak. You can’t train here.”

With that, the crowd encircling him pick up their sticks and disperse, chattering in whispers like bees. Save for Jaemin, who steps closer to him, hands in his pockets.

“Well,” he starts, “I suppose we should introduce ourselves, because we’re gonna be stuck together and all. I’m Jaemin, twenty years old, youngest Airbending master of the Temples at the moment.”

Jisung tries to chuckle, but his throat is too dry for any normal noise to come out. “Jisung, eighteen, and um, Firebending’s all I have so far. Thank you, by the way. For volunteering. I know it’s, uh, a huge decision.”

“No problem! Besides, you wouldn’t want any of those old geezers to be your teacher.”

They both laugh, though Jisung’s sounds very similar to a dying mouse.

Jaemin pats his shoulder, soothing his nerves, “Woah there, let’s get you some water and something for dinner. You must be tired.”

“That sounds like heaven.”

“Great! I’ll take you to my house.”

And off they go, the pair of them walking side by side to Jaemin’s doorstep. Jisung’s journey as the new Avatar is officially set in motion.

≈

“So,” Jisung starts, “Why’d mister thick eyebrows say I can’t train here?”

They were both seated at Jaemin’s dining table. They made it to his small house a few hours ago, Jisung attempting to help with dinner while asking questions about Airbending and Jaemin trying to answer while keeping the dinner from being ruined by Jisung’s help.

His house is small in size but big in personality, exuding a cozy, homey feeling, as soon as Jisung stepped in the door he felt like he was engulfed by a warm fuzzy blanket, nerves put to ease. Maybe it’s just the Jaemin effect. The whole space was open-concept save for the bedroom and bathroom, the brightly coloured furniture of the living room balancing the spotless and organized kitchen on the other side. The dining table was in the centre of the space, where they both are now, with tasteful mosaic-patterned pillows for seat cushions as they chow down on some hot vegetable dumplings.

“Well for starters, the Air Nomads all collected here for a reason: to stay away from the War and to prevent another genocide. If somehow somebody found out you were here, it might mean the end of Airbenders for good. You’re a pretty wanted man, Jisung.”

Jisung raises a brow. “I am?”

“Big time. The Earth Kingdom has been looking for you ever since Dejun died. They think that if they get the next Avatar on their side, they could wipe out the Fire Nation and take their revenge. They want to recruit you, but they’ve never managed to make it inside the Fire Nation.”

Jisung widens his eyes. “Are you serious?”

“You didn’t know?”

“No!” he sets his chopsticks down, resting his elbow on the table to hold his head in his hand. “I thought it was just the Fire Nation after me. Every year, three times a year, the Sun Soldiers bust into every home in the country to test children, see if they’re the Avatar. If they found them, they’d kill them on the spot.”

“Damn,” Jaemin breathes, “You have  _ two  _ groups of ruthless bulb-heads after you.”

“After  _ us _ . You’re with me, now.” Jisung says, lifting his head and solemnly putting another dumpling in his mouth.

“True.”

“At least they don’t know what I look like? This is so messed up.”

Jaemin tightens his lips as he looks at him, in sympathy. He puts his hand on his shoulder again, “I know, everything about it is messed up. But we’re gonna do this. I’m gonna teach you Airbending, we’re gonna find you more teachers, and we’re going to shut down the Earth Kingdom as you said. And, I have a place in mind of where we can go to get started!”

“You do?”

“Yessir! But let’s just get some rest, we’ll sort everything out in the morning. I’ll go set up the couch for you!”

Jaemin stacks their plates and stands up from the table, setting the dishes on the kitchen counter and walking over to the living area. He outstretches his hand toward the right wall, at a big black box, and wiggles his fingers at it. A small burst of air shoots out from his hands and hits the box, the lid gracefully shooting open and hitting the wall the whole thing is pushed against. With a sweep of his hand, a neatly folded duvet and pillow pop out of the box and shoot towards him, which he catches with ease. He lays the pillow on one side of the couch, and spreads the duvet out next to it.

“All set!” He exclaims, hands on his hips.

Jisung looks at him in awe, then at the open box, then back at him. “Wow,” he says, “You can just, Airbend without even putting effort into it?”

“You eventually get so used to drawing out your power, small actions like that cost nothing.”

“That’s fucking sick.”

“I know. It’s bedtime though, see you in the morning!”

Jaemin turns around and walks away, opening his bedroom door and disappearing into the room.

Jisung stands and makes his way over to the couch to rest. He lies there, under the duvet, for what feels like hours lost in his thoughts, watching the shadows from one of the windows dance on the ceiling. He is the Avatar, he tells himself. He is a fugitive on the run. He has both the Earth Kingdom trying to recruit him and the Fire Nation trying to kill him. And tomorrow, he will start learning Airbending.

Coming to terms with his drastically new life was hard. He has to leave painful thoughts of Taeyong behind starting now, it would only hold him back from performing at his best. He has to face the fact that he is not the man he thought he was his whole life. He has to face the fact that he might die from this.

But, it’s a price he has to be willing to pay. He is the Avatar, the bridge between the human and spirit world, the master of all elements; and he is going to save the world, whether he is ready to or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was kind of a shorter one but like in a couple chapters they're gonna get pretty thicc i sorry ! anyways jaemin has appeared ! from the get go i knew jisung would meet jaemin first and like the whole story just kind of blossomed from there as i tried to connect all the members into the fic. im pretty stoked for whats in store so like stay tuned lmao byee


	3. Surprise Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Why are you smiling like that?”
> 
> “Hm? Like what?” 
> 
> “Like, all fond and stuff. After you talked about that person you know.”
> 
> Jaemin’s smile only grows from his remark, though he doesn’t respond, just pumps his eyebrows at him.
> 
> “Oh no,” Jisung whines, “are we meeting your girlfriend?”
> 
> “Nope!” Jaemin says, stopping his airflow to slow them down as they approach a large bay, “but you are meeting my boyfriend.”

The sea is quiet this morning. Not a single gust of wind pushes Donghyuck’s sail forward, nor a single ocean wave drifting him along.

He’s been at sea for days in search of the Avatar, the clumsy kid he met at his kiosk back at the Fire Nation. No luck thus far, which is strange since he left to chase him the same day he left on that dingy old boat.

His family boat isn’t much better, but at least it has proper functionality.

Donghyuck doesn’t know how much longer he can keep this up for. He’s on his last packed apple he brought for the journey, and there’s still no sign of that skinny kid. He almost feels bad for him, he didn’t seem prepared at all for what was coming at him. Donghyuck knows what the Fire Nation is doing, the measures they’re taking to find him. He too was tested thrice a year by the Sun Soldiers, and he was briefed about all the stations they have set up around the world to scout the runaway Avatar. It’s insane what they’re doing to hunt him.

When Donghyuck was young, he had dreamed about  _ being  _ the Avatar, being able to bend all four elements and bring peace to his nation and his family. He had little action figures sitting on his dusty windowsill of past Avatars; Kyoshi of the Earth Kingdom, Roku of the Fire Nation, Aang of the Air Nomads, he collected them, so when he found out he could Firebend he was so ecstatic. But, fire was all he got in the end. Soon after, he learned what the whole world really thinks of the Avatar now.

Maybe the kid doesn’t deserve this. . .maybe he’s not like the one before him, and ran away because his own nation is turning against him. . .no, he can’t think like that. His family would be so disappointed if he doesn’t do this. He needs the money. He needs the money.

A large gust of wind suddenly strikes his boat, throwing him back a foot or two. Donghyuck scrambles to a sitting position, fixing his frazzled hair. He squints out at the sea and spots that familiar rickety boat, this time with two passengers: one dark haired Avatar, and an Airbender, bending wind into their sail. Jackpot.

Taking a deep breath, Donghyuck pulls out the spare oars lying around the cockpit. He starts paddling towards them.

≈

“Where are we even going? It’s taking so long,” a bored Jisung asks, sitting back in his seat on his elbows.

Jaemin rolls his eyes, “Chill, you’re not the one airbending wind into the sail to get us going, Don’t complain!”

“Okay, sorry. Seriously though, where?”

The two of them have been at sea all day since the second the sun rose, the Air Nomads giving them the supplies to last them a few weeks. In their boat, they have designated bags for food, spare clothes, camping gear, and money. Not much money, since the Nomads don’t really have any uses for such a thing, but they gave them what they had. Now, as Jaemin guides them out at sea, the pair hit it off pretty well, though awkward Jisung can’t finish a conversation without apologizing for something.

“Lighten up, don’t be sorry for everything!” Jaemin says with a smile.

“Sorry!”

“That’s it, no more talking from you.”

Jisung tries to not apologize, but he’s a helpless introvert.

“Anyways,” Jaemin continues, “We’re headed to Kyoshi Island. It’s safe there.”

“Kyoshi Island? Isn’t that place Earth Kingdom territory?”

“Sort of, but they don’t directly serve the Earth King. They’re under their own rules, and they cut themselves off from the War because they refused to answer to the old Avatar when the Earth Kingdom wanted them to join their fight. They’re independent. Which means, nobody’s going to rat you out when we’re there!”

Jisung nods, “Okay. You’re sure they’ll um, accept us though? I’m not exactly the man-to-be right now.”

“Of course!” Jaemin assures, head still out at the course ahead, “Besides, I know someone who can put a good word in for us if that happens.”

Jaemin’s ridiculous grin after he said that is disturbing.

“Why are you smiling like that?”

“Hm? Like what?” 

“Like, all fond and stuff. After you talked about that person you know.”

Jaemin’s smile only grows from his remark, though he doesn’t respond, just pumps his eyebrows at him.

“Oh no,” Jisung whines, “are we meeting your girlfriend?”

“Nope!” Jaemin says, stopping his airflow to slow them down as they approach a large bay, “but  _ you  _ are meeting my boyfriend.”

Heat rises to Jisung’s cheeks, “Oh, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to assume—“

“Hey, what did I say about apologizing! No offense taken, I guess it  _ is  _ confusing when the Kyoshi Warriors are women for the most part.”

“Okay,” mutters the younger, scratching the back of his head as they drift into the beach of their destination.

Their boat hits the sand softly, gliding into the shore. The beach is deserted, save for some rustling leaves rolling along the grass a little farther inland. Two large hills up ahead part to reveal a wide pathway, trees lining the edges with small lodges, seemingly empty.

Jisung and Jaemin step out of the boat with their bags of supplies and drag it fully onto the beach, looking around for people.

“Wait,” Jisung says as they put down the bow of the boat, “something about the Air Nomads still hasn’t been explained. Why did you all flee the temples to the Southern one? It just doesn’t make sense, there’s a war on.”

A sigh escapes Jaemin’s lips as he dusts his hands off, “A long time ago, when Dejun was still Avatar, he gathered all the Air Nomads at Air Temple Island and designated us a leader. The whole point of us being Nomads is that we don’t  _ have  _ leaders, our customs are supposed to be freedom and spirituality. But, at the time the people were so afraid of the War and another mass genocide, they complied. He assigned that man, thick eyebrows guy you met before, who is a coward and a liar. 

He led all of us to the Southern Temple to flee from the war when we should have been out fighting, defending his choice as ‘detaching ourselves from worldly concerns, as we have always done’. The old monks believed that all life is sacred, from the tiniest ant to the biggest tree to the Spirits above, and we selfishly fled. The world needs our help and all we do is stand by and do nothing,” he aggressively throws one of their bags over his shoulder and takes a break from explaining.

“Woah, are you okay Jaemin?” Jisung asks.

“He corrupted what it means to be an Airbender, Jisung. I don’t know half the things about my culture anymore, nobody does. That’s partly the reason why I volunteered to train with you.”

“It is?”

“I want to rediscover my culture, and maybe this journey will help me. It will also help how I teach you Airbending, understanding where it comes from is important to move forward.”

Jisung breathes out a “Wow, I. . .I had no idea about any of that. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, it isn’t your fault. Well—not directly, anyways. We can convince the Airbenders to help together!” Jaemin smiles, and Jisung can’t help but give a small grin in return.

Not for long, though, because then a small group of silhouettes in green surround them, the pair not having enough time to react and Jisung ends up getting his hands tied behind his back. Thick woven rope binds Jisung’s wrists, and he tries to wiggle his hands around to burn his way through.

He’s being ambushed. Again.

Taking in his surroundings, he noticed the ambushers are all women, faces painted pure white save for the eyes, bright blood orange eyeshadow coating their eyelids. Forest green headdresses cover their foreheads, with green kimonos to match, skirts trailing down to their toes. Protective armour of the same colour cover their torsos and forearms, tucked over bunchy green shirt sleeves embroidered with a gold stripe trailing down them. Though their clothing is deceiving, their facial expressions and stances tell him he would lose in a fight.

“Not so fast, Fire Nation boy,” a woman says from behind him, grabbing his shoulder and one of his wrists to prevent him from escaping.

“Wait!” Jaemin exclaims, “we aren’t intruders—it’s me, Jaemin!”

Another woman speaks up, holding an intricately designed fan with small blades on the ends to Jisung’s throat. “We know, but what are you doing with a boy from the Fire Nation? We are not involving ourselves in their battles.”

“He’s the Avatar, he’s not here to hurt anybody, promise! We ambushed him before at my temple, and he proved that he’s good.”

“Oh, he’s the Avatar? You should have started with that, stupid! Release him,” one calls, and the woman holding Jisung releases him, to which he wastes no time in burning the ropes off his wrists. “On this island we don’t judge an Avatar for anything done in their past lives. But, what are you doing here?” she asks.

“Looking for Jeno, you seen him around?”

The girl’s face switches to one more sheepish, sympathetic, quirking her eyebrows and sporting an awkward grin. “Yeah, he’s in the Chief’s office. You should hurry before he blows his head off, he’s not happy.”

“What’s he mad about this time?”

“Just go, you’ll find out.”

With a shrug, Jaemin waves a hand to beckon Jisung, and he follows.

Jisung scratches the back of his head from the glares he feels burning a hole through him. He turns to Jaemin, “So, you’re friends with the Kyoshi Warriors?”

Jaemin grins, “Yep! I come down here any time I can—the so-called Monks back at the temple don’t like me wandering around too far. It sucks though, I’m an adult and they only let me leave once every three months.”

“Aren’t you glad I showed up then, hah.”

“Damn right.”

The two approach a tall wooden lodge, thin stalks of bamboo placed in all directions to hold the large green roof sitting atop them, gold lining the edges, colours matching those on the Kyoshi Warrior outfits.

Three large steps connect the building to the lush ground, and Jaemin steps up them without hesitation. Jisung timidly goes after him, gazing up at the tall entrance hallway, shaded by large curtains covering the front doorway.

“So, what did you mean by ‘what’s he mad about this time’? Should we be going in there?” Jisung asks.

“It’s not that bad,” Jaemin says, “it’s just that, well, whether it’s the fate of the world at the hands of the Earth Kingdom or his soup being slightly too cold for his liking, there is never a time where my boyfriend is not angry at something.”

As they approach a grand set of doors at the end of the hall, muffled indistinct shouting filters through them. Jisung widens his eyes and looks over to Jaemin, who’s shaking his head and sighing.

“Exhibit A,” he says, gesturing to the door. He walks over to it, and presses his ear to its surface.

Jisung raises a brow, “You’re just gonna eavesdrop?”

“Shh!”

Shrugging, Jisung follows suit and listens in on the shouts.

_ “You aren’t listening to me! We have to go into Republic City, you heard the messenger, you know what the Earth Kingdom is planning!”  _ yells a voice, young and deep, a little higher pitched than Jaemins.

_ “Jeno, you know we cannot.”  _ says another, calmly. “ _ The Kyoshi Warriors—“ _

_ “No! In three months they will take Republic City, get in their ships on Yue Bay and destroy the Fire Nation! We know the power they have, and they’ll do it easily. We need to stop them, my friends and I agree that we need to do all we can to stop the Earth King!” _

_ “They are fools,”  _ the older one says,  _ “We are not strong enough to stop them alone, not even with double our numbers, you know that.” _

_ “We wouldn’t  _ be  _ alone! If we rallied some people in the city that are willing to help—“ _

_ “Enough. No means no, would you risk getting captured and killed for a cause our people have nothing to do with?” _

_ “Yes!” _

A sigh is heard, then  _ “Get out of my office. I have heard enough.” _

A loud crash reverberates through the walls, along with an enraged growl, then footsteps towards the doorway they are leaning against. Jisung manages to pull Jaemin out of the way as soon as it opens, a young man stomping out and slamming the door behind him, the ruckus cutting through the once quiet hallway.

The man looks Jaemin’s age, with pin-straight black hair, cut short and covering his forehead. As opposed to Jaemin’s open, happy facial features, this man’s is narrow and sharp, with a striking nose and jawline to match. His eyes, though, are round and doe-like, softening his demeanour just slightly. 

He wears the same kimono as the warriors from before, though the front of the skirt has been cut vertically to reveal form-fitting pants, tucked into knee-high green boots. If one wasn’t paying much attention one would think he was wearing a skirt like the rest of the warriors. The headdress usually worn around the head, is instead relaxed around his neck while he isn’t fighting. Even just looking at him Jisung can tell he was trained in combat.

In his wake, Jisung peers into the office to find a lounge chair flipped over with its legs facing the ceiling.

Jaemin clears his throat next to Jisung before the man takes another stomp away. He looks behind him, and his hard expression melts like butter.

“Jaemin?” he asks, Jisung internally matching his voice to the shouting one from earlier. This must be Jeno.

Jaemin throws his grin on again, this time it’s softer somehow, vulnerable, like his usual grin found a fluffy pillow to nap on. He takes a step towards Jeno, who wastes no time in closing the gap between them and holding him tight.

Jaemin returns the embrace eagerly, arms weaved around his waist and chin resting on his shoulder, still grinning.

“I missed you,” he mutters.

Jeno pulls away a little, placing his hands on Jaemin’s shoulders. His smile takes up his whole face, his eyes turning upwards into cute little crescents as he looks at the other. “I missed you too,” he says, “what are you doing here, you said you wouldn’t be back for another month!”

Jaemin’s grin shifts into a half-wince, “That’s what I thought too, but I kinda got caught up in a mission.”

“A mission? What mission?”

Jisung shares a look with Jaemin, and he watches Jaemin turn back to say, “I’m kind of with the Avatar.”

Jeno whips his head to look at him, eyes narrowed. Jisung awkwardly waves, crossing his arms in front of his chest afterwards.

“The  _ Avatar?” _ he asks, bewildered.

“Yeah, I know it sounds insane but—“

“Are you kidding? This couldn’t be better!” Jeno exclaims. He lets go of his boyfriend, who frowns at the action, in favour of walking up to hug Jisung instead, who freezes from the sudden contact. “Thank Kyoshi you’re here, everything is going to complete shit!”

“You don’t say,” Jisung says, voice strangled from how tightly Jeno is holding him. He gives himself a reminder to never pick a fight with this guy.

Jeno pulls away, face suddenly a lot more serious than three seconds before, “I was just speaking to the Chief, Doyoung, who commands us and tells us who to fight. Normally he is very respectable, but right now he is acting like a complete stick in the mud. I need your help, Avatar. . .”

“Jisung,” he supplies. “I overheard what you were saying in that room. The Earth Kingdom is planning to take over Republic City?”

“That’s right. A couple weeks ago we got intel from somewhere in Ba Sing Se that the Earth King was planning to ambush the city in three months and take control of it, since they think they own the land it sits on. Then, they will take their navy ships to their docks and head a course for the Fire Nation with the intent of annihilating them. I’ve been trying to tell him we need to go to Republic City and warn the people, perhaps get some reinforcements and try to stop them, but he refuses to listen.”

“Three months?” Jisung asks, “That’s so soon!”

Jeno looks down. “I know, and we’ve left it far too late. But it’s better late than never. The Kyoshi Warriors and I could put a dent in their plans, but if  _ you  _ come with us, I think we might have a chance at stopping this thing.”

“Uh—now? We came here because I haven’t even started learning Airbending yet, let alone master it in under three months. We need a safe place for me to learn.”

Jaemin takes this opportunity to step into the conversation, snaking a hand around Jeno’s waist once again, “Well, I did tell you all the other Air Temples were deserted, right? What better place to learn than Air Temple Island in Republic City! I only didn’t suggest it earlier because I didn’t want you to get recognized, then captured and murdered. But, maybe there I can look deeper into the cultural roots, it will helo you with your Airbending!”

“Republic City isn’t affiliated with any one nation,” Jeno says, “It’s independent, like Kyoshi Island. Earth Kingdom soldiers and Fire Nation soldiers aren’t allowed on the premises really, because the city refuses to be a part of the War. You could hide in plain sight there—and they’re accepting refugees to enter the city. It’s practically perfect.”

Jisung ponders, “Hmm. . .Jaemin, do you think you could teach me Airbending on the way, too? I want to use all the time I have to master this, and from what it sounds like, I don’t have a lot of that.”

“Well,” Jaemin replies, “I dunno. Are you sure we can’t stay here at least for a little so he can learn?” he turns to Jeno.

“Jisung,” Jeno says, “I know it seems hard, and it  _ will  _ be hard to master the elements in such a short time, especially under such pressure, but you have to understand that you are the Avatar, and your job is to bring balance and peace to the world, no matter the cost. You should know this better than anyone. The Earth Kingdom isn’t going to wait around until you have become fully realized, you have to be quick and sharp to win this War. We need to leave as soon as possible so that they don’t leave you behind. I know you can do it.”

Jisung nods, “Right. I guess I need to get used to this whole there’s-a-war-going-on-and-only-I-can-stop-it’ thing.”

“It’ll be hard, but yes, you do. And I’m coming with you.”

“What?” Jaemin butts in, “Jeno, this is going to be dangerous.”

“And what, you think I can’t handle myself? I am  _ more  _ than capable, _ you’re  _ the one who always gets himself into trouble.”

Jaemin lifts a finger, “Okay, first of all,  _ ouch,  _ second of all, I’m just worried. You know how much you mean to me.”

Jisung barely knows these two people, but he’s already dreading going on a long journey with the lovebirds.

“You mean a lot to me, too.” Jeno gingerly brushes a strand of hair away from Jaemin’s face. “So that’s why I have to go. I won’t let this be the last time we see each other. I need to be there to round up the warriors, anyways. I don’t care about Doyoung, we’re going to help.”

Jisung gapes, “You’re going to go over his head?”

“No,  _ you’re  _ going to walk into his office and tell him our plan. If he won’t listen to the Avatar, he won’t listen to anybody. And if he actually doesn’t listen,  _ then  _ I’ll go over his head.”

Jisung nods.

Jaemin cheers, “Woo! Team Avatar puts the—”

“Not yet,” Jeno faces his boyfriend, “no jokes until this thing actually works, or you’ll just embarrass yourself.”

“Aye aye, captain.”

Jeno gestures to the doors, and Jisung gives his shoulders a shake before walking in.

≈

The conversation with Doyoung goes less than ideally. Not because he was uncooperative, which he was, but as soon as Jisung set his eyes upon the man’s commanding physique, what felt like tiny flames burned his insides making his face red and he stumbled through the whole explanation. 

However, the Chief ended up complying once he heard he was the Avatar, and gave him what they call a  _ telephone number,  _ something newly invented after his predecessor Korra's time, where you dial and supposedly the person you want to talk to shows up on the other line. Crazy how technology advances. Doyoung told him to ring the number when they wanted backup.

The three of them walk out of the office lodge together side by side, walking back to the bay they left their boat in.

Except, the boat is nowhere to be found.

“What the,” Jaemin starts, finding a shredded plank of wood floating in the shallow water, “where’d the rest of it go?”

Jisung pales, “I don’t think you’re going to like the answer to that.”

A sudden thrashing from under the water sends sizeable ripples coursing through the bay. A trail of broken wood and tarp stretches far into the centre, the remnants of their boat.

“Well fuck, where did the boat—“

Then, an ear-curdling screech ricochets off the sand and makes Jisung cover his ears. An enormous creature, a shiny grey eel with two black whiskers adorning it’s sharp-toothed mouth breaches the water, shaking and thrashing about. In its mouth lay the rest of their only mode of transportation.

“You came in on a boat?” Jeno yells over the noise, “where’s your animal guide?”

“My what?” Jisung replies.

“Your  _ animal guide _ . A lot of recent Avatars have had one, I just thought you might!”

“What is it though?”

“Usually it’s like your companion, one of the original benders of the element your birth nation controls! For example, for Earthbenders it’s the badger moles, for the Air Nomads it’s the sky bison, and for the Fire Nation—“

“—the dragons.” Jisung finishes his sentence. “It would be a lot easier if I had one of those, but I can’t exactly get a dragon at the petting zoo! They’re a classified endangered species!”

Jeno scrunches his nose, “Don’t the Sun Soldiers sometimes have dragons on their ships?”

“Well—yeah, I guess, but those are military trained, I can’t just  _ take  _ one!”

“You should have!”

The eel creature spits the boat out at them, each male jumping in different directions to avoid it.

“What’s got the Unagi so mad?” shouts Jaemin.

“She’s hungry! And she’s probably mad there was nothing to eat inside your boat!” Jeno says, dodging waves and wooden debris.

Jisung looks up at the Unagi, and it’s large yellow eyes look back at him, the rest of the creature still creating a ruckus. He remembers what Jeno just said,  _ animal guide _ , and gets an idea. This isn’t exactly that, but he’s going to make do for now.

Uncovering his ears and wincing, he yells, “I’m going to try and tame this thing!”

“ _ WHAT?” _ Jeno shouts back, eyes blown wide like what he said was the craziest thing he ever heard. Which was probably true. “It’s going to fucking  _ kill  _ you!”

“It can try!” he says, and almost passes out by the amount of courage it took to say it.

Jisung bolts right, around the bay and closes to its face, where the Unagi watches his every move. “Hey you!” he calls. “I’m sorry you can’t eat us, but we need your help!”

The Unagi screeches again, ducking its head deathly closer to him.

Jisung keeps talking, though he feels like wetting his pants, “I’m not going to hurt you! I promise!”

The Unagi growls, but it’s thrashing slows, mouth flickering between baring it’s teeth to growl again or relaxing. It moves closer to Jisung, who stands as proud as he can.

Jeno and Jaemin stand at a safe distance away, jaws dropping to the ground.

“Okay, listen up,” Jisung starts when the noise quiets enough, “I know you’re hungry and wanted to eat some intruders, but I promise you if you help me out and let me get on your back for a bit I will find you something  _ so  _ much better to eat than me. Or my friend and his scary boyfriend. Something more nourishing!”

The Unagi stops baring its teeth, huffing out through its nose. Jisung lifts a hand, and it flinches away, whiskers attentive and ready to whip him.

“It’s okay, I promised I wouldn’t hurt you.” he says, voice quivering but he stands his ground. He lifts his hand again and reaches out to touch its nose, which has become very close to him as he yelled at the being. Said being finally stays put, and Jisung takes in a giant breath and puts its hand on the Unagi’s nose.

When the Unagi closes its eyes, he lets it out.

“Good, that’s it, wasn’t so bad right?” his legs are wobbly under his weight, but the Unagi doesn’t notice his nervousness.

“Did you just,” Jeno’s voice carries through the wind, “tame the fucking Unagi?”

Jaemin responds just as shocked, “I think he did.”

“How does it even understand him?”

“I dunno, maybe it’s an Avatar thing. Wouldn’t you know that?”

Jisung gives the Unagi’s nose a little rub, and it gives his hand a light nudge in appreciation. “Okay,” he says, turning to the couple, “hop on now, because I don’t think we should be testing it’s patience.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is kind of short forgive me they only get longer from here on out T_T but jeno is finally here! he cant bend but that doesn't mean he cant kick ass, im excited to delve into his character a little more. anyways uhh stick around next week for another update i have a bunch already written so yeah if u like it let me know ! im out stream ridin get dream their second win


	4. Lesson #1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeno stops next to Jaemin, “What?”
> 
> “I want you to try and strike Jisung.”
> 
> “Excuse me?”
> 
> Jisung chimes in, “Yeah, excuse me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry i died for two weeks, i put it on hold for a second after the whole thing with the radio show because i didnt know what was true and what to think, i was genuinely thinking of deleting this but i'm back! im back for good this time lmao, updates might be a bit slower because i have a bunch of culminating assignments now so like, like once every week and a half or two weeks but i will not abandon this so yeah ! this chapter is short asf but i swear they only get longer from here lmao

_ Jisung was dreaming again. _

_ “Where’s Mom and Dad?” Jisung’s own voice asks, soft, from when he was little. From that day, that same memory as his dream a few days before. _

_ Taeyong, a younger, skinnier version of Taeyong, was sitting next to him on a hill, high and away from the town. His dried tears stuck to his face like gel. “I don’t think they’re coming, Jisungie.” _

_ “What do you mean?” _

_ “I mean they’re gone! They’re gone, Jisung, they aren’t coming back!” his voice rumbled with repressed sobs. He drew his knees up to his chest and wiped his cheeks. _

_ “But,” Jisung said, “she said she’d meet us. . . she said she’d come back!” _

_ “Mom lied. We’re on our own now.” _

_ “No, you’re lying! She said she would come!” his eyes stung from unshed tears, soon to drip down his face uncontrollably. _

_ Taeyong wrapped an arm around his shoulders, bringing him close as he cried. “I’m sorry,” he said, “She’s gone.” _

_ Then, the memory shifts into something else. Taeyong and himself fade away, and in their place a new image appears, one of a small bedroom and a framed family portrait on an old wooden cabinet drawer set. The photo had five people in it: two parents and three children, cheerful grins spread across their sun kissed faces. He didn’t recognize them. _

_ “We’re the same in more ways than one, it seems.” _

_ A distant voice filtered into the dreamspace. Jisung looked around the room for the source, but it seemed to be some sort of omniscient, coming from somewhere inside his head. _

_ “You and I were both brought into war by the Fire Nation’s ruthless violence,” it continued. The family photo began to burn at the edges, eating up the paper inch by inch until it stopped around one of the children’s faces. A little boy, round cheeks and narrow eyes, with a healthy head of black hair. Staring harder, Jisung recognized him from somewhere. He knew him, not in person, but in spirit. _

_ “Dejun,” Jisung said, his voice echoing and dissonant, spoken into the void. “What happened to your family?” _

_ “Ran into a firebender at the wrong place, wrong time. I wanted to avenge them, just like you want to avenge your family.” _

_ The room he stood in disintegrated before him, morphing into a dirty street on a dry evening. Jisung recognized the walls of Ba Sing Se in the distance. People walked in the street, passing through him in all directions to get to their destinations like he didn’t exist, as if he was a spectator in Dejun’s dreamt world. Quiet chatter from the pedestrians filtered in through the blaring nothingness. _

_ “No,” he replied, “I am nothing like you.” _

_ The chatter halted. The people still walked, but parted around a distant figure staring right at him. He was wearing an old Earth Kingdom battle uniform, but tattered and smeared with dirt. His dark hair loomed over his eyes, which bore through Jisung’s own, sending thousands of spider-like prickles up his spine.  _

_ “Oh, but you’re  _ everything _ like me, you just haven’t made it that far yet.” Dejun said, and the figure disappeared. It then reappeared much closer to him than Jisung would have liked. _

_ Getting a clear look at their face, he saw that it was Dejun himself, cheeks cut and bloodied like the rest of his exposed limbs. _

_ “Every Avatar always believes that they’re good, until they realize that justice always means destruction. Mine was the Fire Nation,” Dejun started, then the figure of Dejun standing before him opened his mouth to speak the last line, “I wonder, what will you destroy?” _

Jisung wakes up.

His eyes shoot open, lungs breathing hard. He feels the perspiration on his skin sticking to his shirt.

The bright morning sunlight is shielded for him by Jaemin’s head hovering over him, hair messy and face contorted with worry. “Are you okay, Jisung? I’ve been trying to wake you up for two hours.”

“Oh,” Jisung replies, clearing his throat to get the morning rasp out, “nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“Didn’t seem like nothing.”

“I’d tell you if it was important, promise. I barely remember it, anyways.”A lie, he remembers every detail. Dejun’s words run through his head a mile a minute.

Luckily, Jaemin gives him an unsuspecting shrug. “Whatever you say. Anyways, welcome to rest stop number one of our trip to Republic City!”

He helps Jisung to his feet, and gestures to the small expanse of land out in front of them. They stopped the previous night on this minuscule island, not even properly on the map, and decided to rest here. It has a small forest up ahead and the grass on the ground is green and dewy, a tranquil breeze rustling the leaves and making the wildflowers sway back and forth in a calming dance. He and Jaemin currently stand in a flat clearing, that stretches into a small beach as he looks behind him. Perfect for what they’re about to do.

“You fell asleep as soon as you got off the Unagi, so you missed us set up camp and make breakfast, but we saved you some food anyway, Jeno’s got it.”

To his right, he spots Jeno sitting cross-legged by a small fire, wood-carved cup in hands with a steaming liquid inside. He blows on it and takes a small sip before noticing Jisung walking over.

“Your breakfast is on that plate over there. Eat quick, Jaemin is impatient.” he says, only looking him in the eyes for a split second before going back to his drink. “There’s tea, if you want any.”

Jisung nods and grabs the plate of fruit and toast, scarfing it down as directed. Jaemin jogs up next to him, an unnecessarily peppy smile taking over his face and hands placed proudly on his hips, jumping into a wide stance by the fire.

“Okay, star pupil!” he points at him for emphasis, “get your head in the game and your butt ready because today is your first day of Airbending training!”

“Right now?” he asks.

“Yessir! Shove that apple down your throat and let’s get a move on, the faster the better!” Jaemin grabs his bicep and hauls him to his feet, dragging him farther into the clearing. Jisung makes a strangled noise as he trips over his own feet and looks to Jeno for help, but the warrior is still sitting idly by the fire with his tea as if he didn’t see anything. Traitor.

Once he swallows the last of his breakfast, he yanks his arm back from the eccentric Airbender and walks the rest of the way on his own. They stop a good ways away from camp, with a good chunk of land surrounding them at all sides.

“Okay, let’s begin. So, have you ever Airbent before?” Jaemin asks, combing his hair with his hands before they begin.

Jisung shakes his head no.

“Well, good! Because to start your training we are going to be doing defensive strategies! No airbending needed.”

“Huh?”

“Yep! Now, show me your best stance.”

Jisung nods and shifts his weight downward, widening his stance and rooting himself to the floor.

Jaemin pauses to look at him, evaluating. “Well,” he says. “That’s good, but let’s start by loosening up. First of all, don’t be so grounded and stubborn. Your stance is all wide and secure, when it should be light and airy, so that if an opponent strikes you, you can jump out of the way before it even gets close. Here, just throw a punch at me and I’ll show you.”

Jisung gives him a quizzical look, but nods and winds his arm back to throw his fist towards him. Before his hand even moves forward an inch, Jaemin jumps up with a swift puff of air, front-flips over his head and lands silently behind him, slowing himself down when his feet reach the ground. Jisung whirls around to look at him in awe.

“See, Airbending’s all about being light on your feet, almost never resting your whole body weight in one spot. So, let’s start there. Let’s practice reflexes and shuffling on your feet, okay?”

Taking a deep breath, Jisung lets go of his nerves and bends his knees like Jaemin, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Jaemin moves to hit him, and he twirls out of the way at light speed.

“That’s it! Exactly like that. Act like a leaf; light in the air, moving with the path of least resistance, not pushing and rigid. Let’s try again.”

The next time they try, Jaemin is too quick for him and Jisung reverts back to his Firebending teachings and grabs his fist before it reaches his torso, grounding himself.

Jaemin shakes his head, retracting his hand, “Okay, so this is going to take some work.”

“When am I going to actually Airbend stuff?” Jisung asks.

“Once you have learned how to be defensive. Airbending isn’t a violent art, most Airbenders rarely even use offensive tactics and usually just avoid attacks and weave their way out. To be in the mindset of an Airbender, you have to respect all walks of life and not hurt others unless you have to. You have to learn this before you can be assertive. Now, let’s try again, remember to be the leaf! Hear the differences in the air pressure when someone strikes, anticipate!”

≈

Half the day goes by training to be defensive, which goes half-good-half-bad.

Back at home, Jisung was a dancer. He knows how to be light on his feet and he has the flexibility of a master Airbender as well, but when it comes down to it he can’t sense the different air currents flowing past him. He can barely even  _ sense _ a difference at all. Closing his eyes and focusing hard, he still can’t get it.

“Hmm,” Jaemin says, resting his chin in his hand. “Maybe you think better under pressure. I’ve taught you a good amount of defences and you know them well, you just need to act on them faster. Jeno! Come here!”

From camp, Jeno rises to his feet and walks to their practicing grounds, posture impeccable and shoulders wide like he’s always anticipating a fight. Jisung thinks he would make a terrible Airbender.

Jeno stops next to Jaemin, “What?”

“I want you to try and strike Jisung.”

“Excuse me?”

Jisung chimes in, “Yeah, excuse me?”

“Maybe actually fighting someone instead of doing drills will get your body to catch up with your brain! First, we can start with a regular—ow!” 

Jeno smacks him on the back of the head, interrupting his sentence. “Regular?”

Jaemin tries,”—I mean—non-bending, amazing and equally talented opponent, hence why I called Jeno over here. Duel, you two!”

Jisung raises his hand to speak, but just ends up talking anyway. “What if he like, murders me or something?”

Jaemin chuckles. “He won’t  _ kill  _ you, don’t worry.”

Jisung sighs in relief, taking one nervous glance at the Kyoshi Warrior.

“. . . unless you aren’t quick enough,” adds Jaemin.

Jisung pales.

Jaemin takes a few steps behind to give them more space and Jeno shrugs, turning to look Jisung dead in the eyes, “Let’s do this.”

Jisung is reminded of his dream, of Dejun’s eyes staring into his soul just as sharply. The methods of defence leave his brain as quickly as they came.

Jeno is beginning to pull out one of his sharp fans when Jaemin yells, “No weapons!”

Jisung’s heart races, “Yeah, no weapons please!”

“Whatever,” Jeno agrees, and puts his fan back in place. He rolls his shoulders back, and prepares to strike.

All it took was one quick punch to his shoulder for Jisung to immediately end up on his ass. He moved in a flash, one minute he was in front of him and the next thing he knew he was on the ground, groaning in pain.

His face flushes pink in shame, but he accepts Jeno’s outstretched hand to help him up.

“Come on, Jisung!” Jaemin calls from afar, “Listen to the wind!”

Jisung  _ tries _ to listen to the wind, he tries countless times, but every time Jeno bests him like it’s nothing. One time he was doing pretty alright in avoiding his attacks, until Jeno snuck up on him from behind and swiped his legs, sending him toppling to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs. He wants to say it’s unfair, Jeno is a trained professional and Jisung is just a fledgling at Airbending techniques, but he knows that’s a cowardly thing to do.

After a few more times, Jaemin calls for a break. He says that he might be off his game from the dream he had, blocking his spirit from being set free or some bullshit. Jisung is over it.

He stays lying there after what seems like the fiftieth time beaten by Jeno, staring up at the bright blue of the sky, watching the clouds ride by in peace, following the current of the wind. How come clouds can do this shit but he can’t?

He’s the Avatar, this is supposed to come easily to him. He  _ owns  _ the clouds, they aren’t allowed to be better than him at his own job! Is Jaemin expecting too much? Is Jisung expecting too much of himself? Is he being too hard on himself?

He hears Jeno try and call him for lunch, but he instead forces himself to his feet and walks toward the little forest up ahead.

Jeno stands up to go after him, but Jaemin puts a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head and giving him a knowing look. By the time he looks back at where Jisung used to be, he is gone.

≈

Jisung kicks the dirt as he walks, his face stuck in a resting grimace as he makes his way through the deciduous trees.

“Be like the leaf, he says. Listen to the wind, he says. I can’t hear shit!” he exclaims to nobody. He kicks another patch of dirt, said dirt scuffing his shoes and taking some of the black pigment away. He doesn’t care. He’s supposed to be the Avatar and he can’t even grasp simple defenses, simple shoe cleanliness isn’t a priority.

He knows there’s no handbook on how to be the Avatar. Everybody learns differently, and the fact that he actually found somebody willing to teach him in this day and age is a miraculous feat in itself, but even with all that luck and optimism he still can’t get it. He’s still a failure.

His mind wanders back to his dream, to the eyes staring at him, reading him, stunning him so he was paralyzed. His mind wanders to Dejun asking what he would destroy.

He tells himself he wouldn’t destroy anything. He is better than him. He is more than destruction. He is more than the stereotypes others have forced on him. He wouldn’t destroy anything.

“Fuck,” he mutters. Jaemin was right, he’s off his game today because of a stupid dream. He looks down at his black shoes, now with specks of dirt littered across them like freckles as he walks.

The forest is quiet, allowing him to lose himself in his thoughts like this, to let his own failures and fears creep into his brain and tear him apart. He tries to think of something good, something to take him away from it all, but not a lot of good things have happened recently to get him out of his stupor. So, he tries to listen to the forest to snap him out of it, there has to be  _ some  _ sound out here to distract him.

Then, he hears something. A tremor in the wind currents, approaching from the right. Snapping the small twigs on the ground in its wake. An animal, he wonders. Looking in the direction of the disturbance, a small deer weaves its way through the trees, warm brown coat of fur glistening in the light as it hops from side to side. It frolics, almost mocking Jisung’s misery at how happy it looks.

Scowling, he questions how he knew it was there without even looking. He doesn’t have a third eye . . . unless, he does?

The realization dawns on him. All he did was listen.

He didn’t even  _ need  _ to stand there and concentrate, he just did it subconsciously, breathing and listening to his surroundings. The solution isn’t inside his head, it’s being in the present, almost outside himself.

Dejun is a dream. His thoughts of failures are all in his head. Once he escapes his head, he reaches enlightenment, the enlightenment Jaemin was trying to teach him the whole time. Jisung wonders if the deer knew this too, and came to his aid so he could realize this.

He watches it again, watches it jump and avoid, roaming the grounds freely as if it was its own. It moves like it doesn’t recognize the confines of its own body like it could jump so high it could soar above the clouds. It stops for a moment, somehow noticing that it’s being watched, and turns its long neck to look at him.

Jisung freezes, mesmerized by its charcoal eyes. They share a long look, and Jisung understands. The deer gallops away.

Jisung gives his shoulders a shake, and tries to mimic that feeling, of expanding his limits, clearing his thoughts and listening. He hears the leaves on the tree branches cutting the wind currents, shaking and rustling. He hears the grass swaying back and forth, licking up the air as it breezes by. He hears the swooping of birds from high above the canopies, and the chipmunks and squirrels squeaking from the ground. He hears it all.

A small smile crosses his features, looking down at himself and clenching his fists. He spins around, and runs back to camp.

It seems he wandered further than he thought, for longer than he thought, as he tilts his head up at the blood orange stripes of sunset slowly sinking below the horizon. He makes it out of the forest and back into the clearing, where Jeno and Jaemin sit by the fire, talking to each other with worried looks.

“Jeno!” he calls to him.

Jeno whips his head around, initially wide-eyed but his features immediately settle back down to his usual expression. “Oh, you’re finally done sulking?”

“Shut up, are you gonna fight me or not?”

“I dunno, it’s a bit late. . .” he says, gaze drifting to Jaemin, who looks nothing like he just did five seconds ago, smiling and nodding at him encouragingly. Jeno shrugs, then lifts his chin in understanding before looking back to Jisung, “. . .for losers like you to get their asses whooped, isn’t it?”

Jisung, amped on adrenaline, replies, “We’ll see who the loser is this time.”

Jeno quirks a brow, corners of his lips rising into a small grin as he pushes himself to his feet. “Alright then, let’s go.”

He walks closer to Jisung, who takes deep breaths as he approaches. Once they’re at a good distance to begin, Jeno lifts his foot to start running at him. Jisung listens for the breaks in the surrounding airflow carefully and anticipates the incoming jab to his shoulder, so he swiftly slides out of the way, Jeno lunging and putting all his energy into nothing.

Jeno stumbles for a moment, catching himself and spinning around on one leg. With the other, he outstretches it in an attempt to kick him away as he turns. Jisung throws his torso back and bends his knees in a low limbo, expertly avoiding the blow. He rises back into a standing position and gives him a smirk.

“What did the forest do to you?” Jeno asks, before clenching his fist and aiming to hit his stomach.

Jisung doesn’t even look at his hand before leaning back on his heels and contracting his torso, narrowly missing the attack. When Jeno’s arm is fully outstretched and he can’t reach any farther in the punch, he throws his upper body behind him and pushes off his feet to execute a perfect back handspring: touching the ground with his hands before whipping his legs around to jump back into a standing position.

To avoid getting kicked in the face during this, Jeno whips his head to the side and covers his face, stumbling backwards a few steps. In seconds, however, he recovers, and leaps off one foot in a grand jump to deliver a final blow to send Jisung falling for a fifty-first time.

Jeno leaps and Jisung ducks at the same time, rolling on the ground below Jeno’s feet and smoothly standing up where Jeno used to be. Jeno, on the other hand, plummets head-first to the ground but catches himself in time to somersault and stand up again. He looks behind him for Jisung, but he’s nowhere to be seen.

Whipping his head around in all directions, he can’t seem to find him. “Where’d you go,” he mutters.

Jisung represses a laugh from where he stands, back to back with Jeno but not touching him, leaning and stepping with Jeno’s every move. He keeps light on his feet, so the warrior can’t hear him walk. He finally steps away from him and turns around, lining his lips up with the shell of Jeno’s ear and whispers, “Boo.”

The high-pitched, almost girly scream that comes from Jeno’s mouth is music to his ears as he watches the former’s legs give out from under him. Jisung yells with laughter as the other places a hand on his heart beneath him, eyes shut in a solemn prayer. He hears Jaemin laughing by the fire, too. He’s also fervently applauding.

“Not bad, Avatar,” Jeno grunts, and Jisung extends his hand to help him up. Jeno takes it firmly, dusting himself off once he’s back on his feet. He adds, “but I was just going easy on you.”

They walk back to the fire together, to an ecstatic Jaemin, eyes lit up and practically sparkling with energy.

“Bravo! Bravo, my amazing star pupil! How did you do that?” he asks.

Jisung scratches the back of his neck. “Like you taught me, I listened to the air currents around me and anticipated my opponent’s actions.”

“Did the walk help you figure it out?”

“Yeah, it did. I realized I had to let go of normal limits and it all just,  _ clicked. _ ”

“Your technique was phenomenal, you moved like a true master back there. Excellent work, Jisung.” Jaemin’s smile of validation makes him smile too, relishing in the warmth of the flames beside him. He bows to his teacher, hands clasped with his hand resting over his clenched fist, and Jaemin does the same.

They look to Jeno, who isn’t smiling anymore, mouth turned downward in fact, and Jaemin starts poking his arms. “Come onnn Jen, he did good! We’re happy! You can smile, you know you want to.”

Jeno’s frown only intensifies.

“Oh, stop throwing a tantrum. You’re cute when you get scared over stupid stuff!” Jaemin steps closer to him and squishes his cheeks together with his palms, making Jeno resemble a pufferfish. He still frowns.

“Ywff lawghwed awt mff,” Jeno’s voice comes out nearly indecipherable.

“Because it was cute!”

Jisung nearly pukes, deciding to pour himself a cup of tea as Jaemin coos at his boyfriend until he smiles. Which he does, begrudgingly, from one of Jaemin’s many compliments thrown his way. The latter cheers in delight when he does so, picking him up by the waist and hugging him tight to his chest, Jeno’s arms glued to his sides as Jaemin swings him from side to side.

“Team Avatar! Mastering the thirty-six tiers of Airbending like it’s nothing!” Jaemin hollers.

_ “Thirty six?”  _ Jisung guffaws.

“Oh yeah, we have a  _ long  _ way to go.”

Jeno chimes in, “Put me down right  _ now  _ Jaemin if you value your life!” 

Jisung chuckles at Jeno’s whines and protests, and leaves the campfire to take refuge under his designated tent. They would probably leave the island soon, to continue on the long journey ahead to stop the War, but today actually ended up being more fun than Jisung’s had in a long time.

Closing his sleeping bag once he settles himself in, he shuts his eyes with hope for the future.

≈

_ The harsh sizzle of steam filled Jisung’s ears. _

_ Before him stood a beachside village, or what used to be one, completely destroyed by a landslide. Temples and homes were impaled with chunks of rock, while the streets were nearly invisible, letting a stream of dirt and rubble sit atop them. Plumes of smoke rise from the ground from previous fires put out. Jisung recognized the engravings on the destroyed town. This was a Fire Nation town, in the Earth Kingdom colonies. _

_ Not a single civilian was around from the town, not a single life was spared. _

_ Jisung turned to look behind him from where he stood on a hill high above the wreckage, and was shocked to find a small army of soldiers with the familiar Earth Kingdom military uniform, some partially scorched and smeared with ash. Dejun stood out in front of them, fierce and commanding as he looked over their work. His mouth stretched into a sickly smile as he breathed in the humid air. _

_ “Soldiers,” he addresses his partners, “Today is now a monumental moment in history. Today, we destroyed the town that housed my family’s brutal assassin.” _

_ Jisung shivers at his tone. _

_ “Tomorrow we will declare war with the Fire Nation, and all the days following we will tear them apart!” _

_ The soldiers cheered in unison, crying out in delight. Dejun raised a hand, and they all ceased. _

_ “We will get our revenge on those overpowered monsters once and for all, and we will show the cowards who didn’t listen to us that they were wrong!” _

_ Dejun’s eyes drifted over to Jisung, who stood frozen in front of him. _

_ “You can’t stop this,” he said, speaking a touch quieter , “once a fire grows large enough, not even a thousand Waterbenders can put it out. You’re a Firebender, you should know this better than anyone.” _

_ Jisung shook his head, defiant. _

_ Dejun chuckles,” The Fire Nation unleashed their power upon us without mercy, and this War is our way of giving it back. You’ll understand soon.” _

_ The dream faded to black, and Jisung was left to sleep fitfully. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and there we go ! next chapter is really long to make up for the mistake that is this chapter so look forward to that, i swear it gets more interesting starting from chapter 5 lmao. hope u guys r doing well and see u next chapter ! if ur still here lmk


	5. The Lion's Den

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Nice job, Jisung! You used my move!” Jaemin yells from afar, spectating. “I think you two can stop now, you’ve shown me you’re ready.”
> 
> “Ready for what?” Jisung asks, catching his breath as he walks towards his teacher.
> 
> Jaemin’s bright smile is just as intense as the afternoon sun, “For your final assessment of the first quarter of your Airbending training!” 
> 
> “Huh?” Jisung asks, “We’ve made it a quarter way through it already?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok this took a good minute to get out which im sorry about, i've had this in the drafts for a bit but uhh i had other shit to do like procrastinating on writing my other chapters but now its here ! practically all the chapters at this point are unbetaed, nobody else has read these beforehand cause we die like men around here so have fun reading this its a long one

Jisung steps aside from Jeno’s outstretched arm, away from his lethal fan expertly swiping in his direction. He takes a step back in a lunge and thrusts his hands outward, wrists touching and hands jutting out like a blooming flower, sending a small whirlwind of air towards Jeno.

Jeno leaps out of the way and grabs hold of a tree branch to his right, swinging around and perching himself atop it. He looks down at Jisung and dives down to tackle him, but the Avatar hears the movement before he sees it and blasts off the ground, front-flipping over him and landing next to Jeno, who lands on the ground feet-first with a  _ thump  _ after the failed attack.

“Nice job, Jisung! You used my move!” Jaemin yells from afar, spectating. “I think you two can stop now, you’ve shown me you’re ready.”

“Ready for what?” Jisung asks, catching his breath as he walks towards his teacher.

Jaemin’s bright smile is just as intense as the afternoon sun, “For your final assessment of the first quarter of your Airbending training!” 

“Huh?” Jisung asks, “We’ve made it a quarter way through it already?”

The three of them, Jisung, Jaemin, and Jeno, have been travelling to Republic City on the Unagi for nearly two weeks, making one to two day rest stops at various unmapped islands in the great sea. After Jisung’s Airbending roadblock was demolished, he learned to understand each technique and move taught to him like he has practiced for years. He learned a few key offensive forms and movements, which he mastered easily and went through lessons like candy.

“Yep! If you pass this, you’re one step closer to being a master.”

Jisung runs a hand through his hair, taking a deep breath through his mouth. “Okay, so what do I have to do? I’ve sparred with Jeno like, a thousand times already.”

“Well, you’re in luck, because for this test you won’t be fighting him at all! It comes in two parts: the first part is fighting another bender, me, using your forms and techniques. The second part, is understanding meditation and spirituality.”

Jisung throws his head back and lets out a long sigh. “ _ Meditating? _ Are you serious?”

“A hundred percent!”

He is not excited for this part of training, to say the least. Every time he encounters something even remotely spiritual he never understands it. He isn’t wise like Jaemin, he simply doesn’t get spiritual metaphors or practices, no matter how hard he tries.

“In Firebending training, I was taught to truly understand the earth and one person’s impact on it, to control my fire, but everything about the spirits contradicts everything I understand about the earth in the first place! I don’t get it, Jaemin.”

“That’s why,” Jaemin says, sitting down on the ground cross-legged with his palms together in prayer, “you have to forget everything you think you know about the Earth. It’s important that you learn meditation, it will help you enter the Spirit Realm and talk to past Avatars!”

An image of Dejun’s hollow, dull eyes flickers in Jisung’s mind, “Um, I think I’m okay with not talking to past Avatars.”

“Jisung this is serious. You cannot progress in your training unless you can successfully meditate and connect with the Spirits. I can do it, and I’m not even the Avatar, so you can too.”

With an angry whine, Jisung plops down next to him, mirroring Jaemin’s position. “Okay, tell me what to do, Spirit man.”

“First, you need to clear your mind. Everything you’re thinking, set it aside just for this moment. We are going to look deep into ourselves and see what we are made of, how much is light and how much is darkness.”

“The only thing Jisung is made of is teenage angst,” Jeno interjects, making Jaemin snicker.

Jisung scoffs, “That’s rich, coming from the guy who has smiled all of two times since I met him.”

“You better shut your mouth if you want to keep it.”

“Guys!” Jaemin interjects, “We are trying to  _ meditate  _ here. No bickering.”

Jeno looks down, which is code for  _ ‘Okay cool, I’m never speaking again.’ _

“Right, sorry.” Jisung says, and closes his eyes. He breathes deep, and focuses on setting all his mind-wanderings aside.

His thoughts of Jeno’s stoic face and dumb comments leave him. His thoughts of Jaemin in front of him disappear. Wow, clearing his mind is easier than he thought. He sets aside a reminder to pat himself on the back once this is over.

“Great,” a voice from somewhere ahead of him, Jaemin’s voice, says, “Now envision your spirit. Envision your soul like a river, what colour flows through it? Is it mostly white, or black?”

As he tunes out all the nuances and sounds of the world, he loosens the strain on his muscles and concentrates on his instructions. Then, some sort of image takes form on the insides of his eyelids. Not something he can visually see, but rather something he  _ feels  _ is there, a large river, the strength of its current rushing through and rattling his ribcage. The water flowing across it glows the purest white Jisung can imagine, the white of sea foam, of fine ivory piano keys, of peaceful doves flying in the spring.

“It’s. . .it’s a white river.”

“Good, that means your soul is pure in nature and we can continue. Now, think of—“

Suddenly, the colour becomes poisoned. Boatloads of thick pitch black rush into the river, swirling and mixing with the light and tainting it grey. A sharp pain pokes at his lungs.

“Wait,” Jisung exclaims, knitting his brows together, “It’s—it’s not white anymore—so much black just—wait!”

“Jisung?”

He tries to open his eyes but they are practically glued shut, his own muscles working against him and keeping him in place. Flashes of the rushing black water and the memory of the wrecked Fire Nation village alternate in his brain, until nearly the entire river is black, save for one small sliver of white in the centre that grows smaller and smaller with time. Dejun’s voice echos:  _ “Justice just means destruction.” _

“Stop!” He yells.

The vision dissipates. His body allows him to open his eyes, greeted by a shocked Jaemin and a frowning Jeno. Jaemin’s face is one stricken with horror, Jisung watches him struggle to come up with a sentence.

“It’s just as I was afraid of,” Jaemin breathes out, “We can take a break from meditation for today, what do you say?”

“I would like that a lot,” Jisung agrees.

So much for a pat on the back.

They stand up, Jisung on wobbly knees, and make their way back to their camp where Jeno begins dissembling their tents.

Jaemin huffs, somehow happily, “Maybe it’s just not time for you to enter the spirit realm yet! Maybe they’re just not ready for you. We’ll try again once we’re in Republic City.”

“Yeah, we’re practically there already,” Jeno chimes in, folding a rain tarp into a square so compact Jisung could do origami with it, “We’re about to cross what some call the Scorpion’s Tail, all the small little Fire Nation islands off the coast of the United Republic of Nations, a.k.a the country we’re going to. All we need to do is pass Crescent Island at the end of it and get on a refugee barge, then we’re there. If things go according to plan, we’ll get there by tomorrow.”

“Sounds easy enough,” Jaemin says, “Jisung! Help me pack up.”

Jisung scurries to his aid and together they collect their belongings and put them in bags, which they evenly distribute two-per-person.

They’re walking to the beach where the Unagi is calmly swimming in a circle, like a dog chasing its tail, when Jisung notices a surge in the strength of the waves lapping at the sand. There isn’t much wind, the ocean should barely be moving at all, but the waves grow just slightly, ripples almost artificially similar in size and distance apart.

“There’s a boat nearby. Maybe more than one. Look at the water,” he tells them.

“Could just be the wind,” Jaemin shrugs.

Jeno gazes out to sea, squinting. “Wind doesn’t make waves like that. Either somebody found us, or somebody has a death wish being this close to a war zone.”

“We’ll be on the lookout then. We don’t have time to stay on this island another night.”

Jeno glances back at the land, chewing the corner of his lip, then sighs. “You’re right, we have to press on. Jisung, do your thing.”

Jisung nods and wades ankle-deep into the water. He lifts his right hand to his lips, puts the tip of his index finger and thumb into his mouth, and whistles. A short, clear chirp that alerts the Unagi of their plans, and he wipes his hand on his pants as it slithers towards them. It lowers its head, allowing for Jisung to climb over its nose and secure a seat at the top of its neck.

The others follow, Jeno first Jaemin second, sitting down behind him and they wrap their arms around each other’s waists in a chain as Jisung grabs hold of the eel’s antennae.

With a light tug on they’re on their way, Jeno telling him directions from behind as the Unagi swims forward at ridiculous speeds. Jisung keeps a keen eye out at the sea in front of them for potential danger. A reminder of the Fire Nations plans for him, the Earth Kingdom’s ruthless recruitment, claws past his subconscious and makes its way into the forefront of his thoughts. That was the worst case scenario though, if they showed up.

They haven’t encountered any enemies as of yet, and Jisung isn’t exactly ecstatic to come across his first.

Just then, he spots two vague objects barrelling towards them. The water pushes against the Unagi’s body, waves coming in from all sides that are very similar in size and shape. Well, speak of the enemy and they shall appear.

The forms slowly come into viewing distance, and he sees that they are indeed two metal ships, surprisingly medium-sized but sending clouds of smoke coming their way from the tall exhaust pipes at the centre of their decks. A large insignia covers the bow of the ship: the insignia of the Fire Nation. Judging by the scale and distance from their home country, Jisung can tell they’re patrol ships, supposed to be guarding the borders of the Fire Nation islands.

Jisung curses. “Guys, we have trouble. And I think the trouble knows who we are.”

“Huh? What are Fire Nation shops doing this far away from their patrol boundaries? Crescent Island isn’t for another mile or so.”

“I don’t know, but what do we do about it?”

The two ships gain on them fast, only a hop skip and a jump away from sailing past them or sailing into them. A loud ringing comes from one of them, followed by a string of curses, then a “Ahem!”. They must have a megaphone on board.

“Oh my, if it isn’t the world’s most wanted man right before my very eyes!” someone says from the speaker, “Don’t think of running, we can have your precious Unagi turned into a pulp within seconds. You’re a smart Fire Nation boy, you know how many cannons are in a single army boat.”

He does know. There are twenty-eight.

The Unagi halts it’s swimming, slender body treading in between the two ships.

“How did you find us?” Jaemin yells up above.

“Doesn’t matter, but if you must know we got a hot tip saying the Fire Lord’s most wanted man was lurking in the Mo Ce Sea, and it looks like he was right.”

A hot tip? Who would be following them?

A male soldier leisurely walks over to the ledge of the deck to look down at them, megaphone in hand. He seems to be some sort of army general. Another appears next to him, a few feet away.

Jisung blinks once, then twice. He knows that face.

Memories of the day he realized his destiny flooded in. He remembered bumping into a kiosk and talking to a boy with this face. He remembers him being kind to him, taking pity on him . . . why would he do this?

“You?” Jisung says, “Have you been following us?”

The boy looks away, but the general speaks once more, “He indeed has been. A good kid, listens to orders well, isn’t that right?”

No response. Jisung shields his eyes from the sun to get a better look at them.

“Well, anyways, we’re under orders to imprison you and take you back to the Fire Lord’s palace, so whatever you’re doing is now coming to an end. You can either come with us peacefully, or we will have no choice but to use force.”

The loud creaking from the grinding of metal on metal makes Jisung cringe, looking at the sides of the ships which are slowly revealing perfect square slots, black barrels of large cannons lower to look him in the eyes. He gulps.

Someone pokes his side, and Jisung turns his head to the side slightly as if to tell them  _ speak now, or we are literally going to die! _

“It’s time to put your learning to use, Avatar. Are you ready to complete the first part of your assessment?” Jaemin’s voice mutters.

_ NO!  _ He wants to say,  _ ABSOLUTELY NOT! _ But Jisung knows better than to cower and run. He’s done that too many times before, this time he will face the music.

“Well? What do you choose, mercy or force? Choose now, because in five seconds these cannons are going to go off.” The soldier asks, impatient.

Jisung breathes in through his nose, and out through his mouth. He looks up at his potential captors and addresses Jaemin without moving, “On three, we’re going to grab Jeno and ambush that ship. One,”

Jisung lets go of the Unagi’s antennae.

“Two,”

Jaemin and Jisung wrap their arms around a disgusted Jeno from either side.

“Three.”

As the sound of the cannons firing rattles their ears, the Airbenders use their power to push themselves off the Unagi, pummelling through the air like a missle and aiming themselves in a perfect projectile arc to land on the main soldier’s ship deck. Jeno squeezes his eyes shut until the second their feet land on the flat surface, Jaemin patting his shoulder before turning around to face the oncoming Firebending guards. Is Jeno scared of heights?

The cannons, instead of hitting them and the Unagi, soar past each other and knock giant holes into the bulls of each ship. Jisung stumbles as the ship rumbles from below. It’s going to sink and they will sink with it if they don’t wrap this up quickly.

The general from earlier strikes first, sending a forceful fire-fist in Jisung’s direction head-on. In an instant Jisung senses his movement and blocks the attack by moving his hands down then out, parting the flames with a cool wind. No fighting until absolutely necessary.

“You’re sinking, there’s no use fighting us when we’re all about to go under!” Jisung says.

The man sighs, “It’s not up to me. It’s either we take you to the Fire Lord or go down trying.”

Another blast of fire is sent towards him and he gracefully slides out of the way. He looks back to Jeno and Jaemin deflecting guards of their own while Jisung is occupied. They fight in perfect sync with each other, protecting each other while guarding themselves at the same time. They read each other’s movements almost as instinct, barely even looking at the other before switching places and dancing around each other in the fight. It was almost elegant to watch, the way they seem to know each other so well. Jeno throws one of his fans at a guard, sending him falling to the ground as Jaemin twirls around him to dodge an attack. Must be amazing to have a person to rely on like that.

Jisung focuses back on his opponent. He’s just been sidestepping and luckily managing the fight thus far, but as the ship makes its untimely descent into the sea he looks around for something that floats. A few yards away there’s a line of lifeboats, big enough to hold a small crowd and draped over with a fitted tarp. Jisung decides to end this useless fight, easily overpowering the man with a strong air blast and watches as the man trips overboard. He’ll be fine.

Jisung runs over to his companions currently taking seven soldiers at once, “We need to get off! There are lifeboats on deck, let’s move!”

Jeno spares him a short glance and nods before he ducks, two guards jumping right over him as he rolls underneath and heads for the boat, collecting some of his fans he used in the fight along the way. Jaemin and Jisung follow suit, holding back their opponents in the process.

Jaemin unfastens the ropes connecting the lifeboat to the deck, and Jisung elegantly slices a small wall of fire on the wooden floor to prevent any new guards from approaching them.

The ship rumbles once more, the entire port side tilting downwards into the sea, the trio sliding down the now diagonal deck floor and crashing into the lifeboat hull. Jaemin places his foot on the side railing as he tries to pry open the knots faster.

“This is taking too long,” Jeno says, and grabs the rope from Jaemin’s hand. He pulls a small dagger out from somewhere around his leg and slices the rope in the blink of an eye. Part of the tarp springs back from the tension of the rope, but there’s still more to be cut. He moves back to where he was leaning on the lifeboat’s side and cuts the remaining ropes attached to the rim in one swipe.

“Why didn’t you do that earlier?” Jaemin asks as he helps Jeno lift the ends of the lifeboat over the railing.

“I thought you would have done that!”

“I don’t carry fucking  _ knives  _ on me! I was raised by monks!”

“. . . right.”

The ship’s port side lowers until it is completely on its side, and they wait until the railings they stand on touch the water to drop the boat and hop in, Jeno at the bow, Jaemin in the middle, and Jisung at the stern. Jisung turns to face the ship and thrusts his hands outwards, a whirlpool of air blasting them away from the ship. It takes a little more effort than usual because of the downward suction of the sinking ship, but they make it away from the giant wreck easily.

Jisung looks back at the scene as it gets smaller, and spots another lifeboat with someone in it, slowly rowing out of the way.

“Damnit,” he mutters. It’s that Fire Nation boy. He never quits, does he?

≈

Donghyuck sits in a lifeboat, one he managed to get on before the ship went under. He paddles around, searching for the ship general in the water. He wants his money.

Surely enough, there he is. Treading like a madman in the deep blue waves, now shouting at him to come closer. Sighing, he does as ordered, letting the man grab hold of the boat’s rim for stability.

“Fucking hell, I thought you said the Avatar was clumsy and untrained!” he complains.

Donghyuck shrugs, “That was a couple weeks ago. I guess he isn’t anymore.”

“Well, get me to dry land then go get him!”

“What? No, I told you I already found him. It’s not my fault you couldn’t get him.”

“I’m the one that makes the rules around here, not you. You aren’t getting your reward until you successfully capture him.”

A face had never looked more punchable to Donghyuck. “Are you serious? This isn’t fair!”

“I don’t care. Get me to some dry land and  _ go. _ ”

Donghyuck clenches his fists. He exhales loud through his nose,  _ “Fine.” _

“Good. Now, we know what him and his friends look like, at least. We can start sending out wanted posters. Better be quick before someone else catches him.”

Donghyuck helps the general into the boat. He paddles around to find a nearby island, spotting the Avatar’s boat far ahead. Just north of here is the lion’s den, Republic City. Finding them will be hard, but he has to try. For his family.

≈

Yue Bay is a grand body of water, calm and bright blue, reflecting the fluffy clouds up above as well as their boat’s shadow as Jisung airbends them forwards. If he looks close enough, he can see little pods of fish swimming by, almost like they’re saying hello.

Republic City stands proud up ahead, tall silver skyscrapers looming over the sea and glimmering in the sunlight. The sound of Satomobiles honking and the bustling of civilization are like music to his ears after being removed from it all for so long.

The city is separated into three sections, one on the left side of the bay, one coming to meet them in the middle, and one on the right side, all connected by gleaming golden bridges strung across the bay in an elegant fashion. A river bellows to their right, the city settling on either side of the river bank and working around it in perfect harmony as it spills fresh water into the bay. The whole place seems perfect, untouchable even, as they approach the middle section. Perfectly busy, so they can hide in plain sight. Next to it stands the tall, proud statue of Avatar Aang, looking over the city proudly, staff in hand. Jisung stares at it for an extra moment, drawn to it.

Air Temple Island drifts away behind them, a small island right next to Republic City with elaborate temple spires and stone buildings, eerily empty.

“The refugee docking port is to the right, I’ll tell you when to slow down,” Jeno exclaims.

Jisung steers them right, around the curve of the land and passes other boats, some large yachts and other small sailboats leisurely navigating the bay. Coming up, he spots a large wooden lodge coming right off the dock, staying above water by large stilts on each corner. A small lineup of boats make a ring around the building, people with ragged clothing and desperate looks on their faces.

“Is that it?” Jisung asks.

“Yeah, I guess we should get in line.”

Jisung lessens the force of his airflow, turning the boat around and getting them a spot on the lineup.

“We made it,” Jaemin sighs, leaning back in the boat and resting his feet on the rim.

Jeno stays seated forwards, his back to the two of them, “Not yet, we could still be turned away.”

“Fun sponge.”

“I’m just being realistic!”

Jisung moves the boat forwards as the line moves. “So,” he says, “Back there, um, when we were fighting those people . . . you guys were really good.”

“Hm? What do you mean?” Jaemin asks.

“I dunno, you were fighting together and stuff. How do you just do that?”

“Ah, I didn’t even realize. It sort of just, happens, when you know someone and are comfortable with someone for so long. We’ve fought others together a few times, but it’s just about trust. We trust each other.”

“How long have you been together?”

“Two years. But I’ve known Jeno for three, it took a really long time for him to realize I was flirting. He’s shy,” Jaemin teases.

Jeno turns his head around to glare at him.

Jaemin laughs, “It was really cute, actually. He wouldn’t even show me what he  _ looked  _ like behind the makeup, I had to barge in when his guard was down.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Jeno says, cheeks blazing pink.

“He’s not as mean as you think, but I guess he doesn’t want you to know that.”

“It’s none of his business what I’m like right now. All he needs to know is that my name is Jeno, I’m a Kyoshi Warrior, and I’m on his side _. _ ”

“Lame, we were having a bonding moment!”

Jisung looks down at his feet.

“Don’t worry,” Jaemin whispers. “He’ll come around to you. Your Airbending was fantastic, by the way. I’m giving you an A plus!”

“Thanks, Jaemin,” he replies.

Their boat eventually makes it to the front of the line, and they approach a small window with a young woman sitting behind it, dark brown hair slicked into a clean ballet bun on the crown of her head.

“Passports?” she asks, the shrill timbre of her voice shocking Jisung.

“Sorry, we didn’t have time to grab them before we ran. I hope that’s okay,” Jeno says, his pleading tone very different from his usual monotone voice.

The woman sighs, “Yes, that’s alright sir. I’ll just need you and your companions to fill out a few forms here and give them back to me. You can dock your boat and come around to the front entrance.”

She hands Jeno a few sheets of bright yellow paper with fine-print text on them, along with three black pens. “Next!” She exclaims tiredly, and they steer their boat to the dock.

Jeno jumps off the lifeboat onto the dock and grabs a rope to tie it off, Jaemin and Jisung getting out once he’s finished.

After a few minutes of sitting and filling out the refugee registration forms, they walk over to the lodge’s front door and hand them to the woman from before, who looks them over and deems them acceptable. She beckons them inside and has Jisung sit on a black stool.

“Okay, look over this way sir.” She says.

Jisung lifts an eyebrow, “Huh?”

Before he could fix his expression, the bright flash of a camera shutter clicking shocks him, causing him to jump in surprise.

“Hmph,” she says, looking it over, and walks over to a large, bulky computer. She clicks a few buttons, a few things spit out of the printer next to the computer desk, and the next thing he knows is that he’s being handed a small passport, the gold crest of the United Republic of Nations brandished on the front.

“This is a temporary residence passport,” she explains, “Once the war is over and you’re able to move back to wherever you came from, this will expire. I will give one to your friends as well and you will be on your way. I hope you enjoy Republic City.”

Jisung opens his passport and grimaces at his horrific photo. His eyes were blown wide, mouth in a small ‘o’ shape and eyebrows disappearing behind his fringe.

Exhaling through pouted lips, he watches as Jeno and Jaemin learn from his mistakes and come out with normal photos.

Once their passports are given, the woman gives them a quite large sum of yuans to start out with, and are quickly ushered out of the lodge and into the seaside street. Looking around at the area, it’s very overwhelming for small town dwellers like themselves.

A biker nearly runs them over from behind them, ringing their bell angrily. Dozens of Satomobiles rumble along the stone road, honking their horns and speeding past each other in a frenzy with their radios blaring through the closed doors. Pedestrians shuffle by on the narrow sidewalks, slithering in and out of shops and salons and restaurants packed tightly together. Hundreds of storeys of apartment buildings stack high atop the retail spaces, tall towers casting large shadows across the roads. Jisung holds in a long breath at it all.

“Where do we even start?” he asks.

Jaemin shrugs, “Dunno. Let’s cross!”

“Wait—“

Without warning, Jaemin grabs his wrist and steps out onto the crosswalk, looking around at the city bustling with life as they enter the chaos.

Jisung struggles to keep up with Jaemin’s eccentric walking pace, the older gazing with nothing but pure awe at everything around them. They pass a flurry of bakeries and decor shops before stopping on a particular street, one with a store the size of half the block catching Jaemin’s eye and making him gasp. It has large floor-length windows covering the whole front entrance and a bright yellow sign reading  _ ‘PARK’S THRIFT BONANZA!’  _ in flickering letters.

“Let’s go in!” Jaemin says eagerly.

“The thrift store?” Jeno asks.

“Yeah! We’re in Republic City, I could use a wardrobe change to blend in.”

“I don’t know . . . changing out of my kimono? I always wear one.”

“We can’t stand out too much, Jeno. I know how much it means to you but the people we ran into on the way here are still alive and know what we look like, they’ll be looking for people with our exact description.”

“Speaking of which,” Jisung gestures to a sign on one of the windows, “I think they already are.”

Walking closer to the sign, he can make out a drawing of, well, himself. It’s kind of rough, he thinks his nose isn’t quite that pointy, but all his main features are there: the black hair, small eyes, fire nation robe, knee-high boots. Next to it is the warrant for his capture for the Fire Nation. There is a nearly identical sign to its left for an arrest warrant for the Earth Kingdom. How did they get a move on this so quick? It’s only been hours.

Jeno stares at a sign for himself in the face, chewing on his bottom lip. He’s wearing the kimono in the drawing.

“Okay,” he says eventually. “Let’s go in.”

Jaemin slides his fingers in between Jeno’s, squeezing his hand “Don’t worry, I’ll help you pick out something nice!”

Upon Jeno’s nod, the three of them walk into the thrift store. It’s musty smell hits Jisung’s nose before everything else, coughing as he looks properly at the grand store. Circular racks holding a plethora of things, carefully categorized, fill the space along with shelves stocked with accessories and jeans leaning on the walls. In the back-right corner of the store are a few cubicles with yellow curtains, probably fitting rooms. Immediately, Jaemin drags Jeno towards the shirt section and leaves Jisung to his own devices.

He’s never really tried Republic City clothing styles, only ever wearing traditional Fire Nation getups, usually hand-me-downs from Taeyong. Everything is so much more modern than he’s used to, flicking through the hangers and hangers of blue jeans. Eventually he stops on a pair of black jeans in his size, relaxed fit. He picks it up from the rack to inspect it and realizes they’re actually a pair of overalls, with a large pocket on the front portion. This could be interesting. He drapes them over his arm and continues looking around.

Walking over to the shirt section, he spots Jeno’s deep scowl as he looks at Jaemin’s shirts he’s holding up for him. It seems he wants Jeno to try them on, but Jeno keeps shaking his head. Eventually he agrees, which lights Jaemin’s face up exponentially, and they head to the fitting room, beckoning Jisung to try the things he has as well. Taking a few random long-sleeves and pullovers, he joins them.

“Jisung, you go first because Jeno is annoying and stubborn,” Jaemin says, gesturing to the empty fitting room stall.

Jeno scoffs, “Am not!”

Jisung rolls his eyes, but complies anyways. He shuffles over to close the curtain, and within a few minutes he’s back out, wearing the overalls from earlier with a white shirt underneath.

“I dunno, it’s the first thing I grabbed,” he explains.

“Hmm,” Jaemin says, holding his chin and narrowing his eyes. “Not bad, did you find any black jeans in your size? No overalls.”

“Uh, yeah I found one I think—“

“Put them on. Wear them with that black shirt you picked up, the one with the red racer team logo on it, and the striped shirt under it.”

“Whatever you say,” Jisung says, and promptly returns with the two items on. He likes the red theme, it reminds him of his home colour.

Jaemin grabs a black hooded windbreaker from one of the racks, a little big-looking for a guy like Jisung, and throws it at him, “Put this on.”

Jisung does as he’s told, rolling the sleeves up to his elbows and putting his hands in his pockets. “Is this okay?” he asks.

“Yes . . . just needs one more thing.”

Jaemin kneels in front of Jisung, grabs the jean of Jisung’s right knee, and rips a perfect line through it.

“What the—“

“Perfect. Now you’re good to go. We can grab some other stuff for you on the way out, think about layering your shirts. Jeno! You’re next.”

Jeno groans, but stands up to face his demise.

After what felt like forever, Jeno finally emerges from the fitting room, fiddling with the sleeves oh his huge pullover sweater; light grey, with the Republic City University’s logo on it in kelp green. He wears a dark blue and green flannel under it, collar peeking out over the crew-neck and jutting out from the sleeves a little. He kicks his legs out one after the other, looking down at the green corduroy pants he has on, cuffed at the ankles.

“I thought they were too long, so I did this.”

“Oh. My. Spirits.” Jaemin says. “You look  _ adorable! _ Jaemin, doesn’t he just look so huggable?”

“Don’t you dare,” Jeno warns.

Jisung snickers, “He kinda does, though.”

“Oh, not you too.”

“You look nice! I swear.”

Jeno blushes harder than he was before, if possible, “Thanks.”

As Jisung and Jeno settle on some shoes, Jaemin puts on an outfit of his own and meets them in the shoe section, beckoning them to the cash register. His style is more colourful to what Jisung has on; black jeans, yellow t-shirt, orange long-sleeve underneath. Air Nation colours. Looks like they’re all set.

They purchase the items and walk out with pounds of bags for them all to carry. As they step out onto the street, Jisung notices the sun setting over the horizon. Wow, they must have been in there a while.

“It’s getting late, I guess we should start heading over to Air Temple Island,” he says.

Jaemin replies, “Wait just a minute, I saw this one store I want to check out. I think it has something we need.”

“Where?”

“There,” he points to a small shop on the other side of the street, almost a hole in the wall. From the symbols and artwork in the display window, it seems like it’s an Air Nation trinket shop. Probably souvenirs, merchandise, things like that.

“Why do you need to go in there?” Jisung asks.

“You’ll see,” Jaemin says, and leads the way inside.

The inside is warmly coloured, all hazy yellows and oranges, filled to the absolute brim with wooden toys and small canvas paintings. Jisung accidentally elbows a large stack of cookbooks as he walks around, now he’s holding it like a baby.

“Aha!” Jaemin exclaims from the corner of the store, “I  _ knew  _ they would have some! Just my luck!”

Jisung makes his way over, “What are you looking at?”

“Gliders,” Jaemin says. Lo and behold, two thin wooden staffs lean on the wall facing them, expertly cut and crafted, with small slots on the sides for something to emerge from them. “They let Airbenders fly. If you use it right, you can bend the air around their retractable wings and soar around like a bird. They’re the same things the other Air Nomads had when they ambushed you.”

“Right,” Jisung says. “You can teach me how to use one?”

“In theory, but you need spirit to truly understand flight. The last time we tried meditation, you envisioned your soul getting attacked by a strong darkness. You have to fight it away before you can move on in your training.”

“But how?”

“It’s like your Firebending training, where you grab a leaf and burn a hole in the middle and concentrate on not letting the flames burn out the whole leaf. It’s that same feeling with meditation, you have to concentrate on keeping your soul pure, is all. It might be more difficult considering your . . . past, but I know you can do it. Maybe you just need some rest!”

Jaemin smiles and picks up the two gliders, placing down the correct amount of money before leaving with them in hand.

The three of them make their way to Air Temple Island together, eventually having to jump on the back of Jaemin’s new glider and flying over to the land. The ferries must not run there anymore.

The ride wasn’t long, and they land on the surface of the island in no time. The temple itself is intact and stable, but every surface of the place seems to have a thin sheet of grey covering them. Dust, maybe, or just dirt. Nobody has been here for a while. The building is gorgeous, with grand sets of arches holding up the towers and lining parks and training spots, but on the ground lay small craters and scorched surfaces. There was a fight on this island.

Jaemin takes a deep breath, and marches forwards into the temple, “Let’s find where the rooms are. Maybe the people before us left something.”

As they walk through the temple, Jisung notices the grand murals and paintings covering every surface of the walls, of people with blue arrows on their heads dancing in the air, blue wind currents wrapping around them like silk, in perfect harmony with each other. Some spots of the murals are missing, though, holes in the walls and burn marks covering what used to be beautiful artwork. Jaemin touches his hand to one of the craters, lit by the orange sunset, and sighs. Jeno puts a hand on his shoulder. Jaemin barely reacts.

“The history of my people lines the walls here . . . who would do this?” he says.

“Dejun,” Jisung supplies.

Jaemin closes his eyes and clenches his hand into a fist.

Jisung’s face falls, “I’m sorry this happened.”

“It’s fine, it wasn’t you. Besides, I’m sure I can still learn something here! These are just some, um, bumps in the road!”

“Jaemin,” Jeno says softly, “It’s okay if you’re upset about what happened to this place. I know you wanted to learn about your past.”

“It’s fine! No point crying over it, and maybe Jisung could tell me a thing or two if he figures out how to meditate.”

Jaemin continues walking to the bedrooms, but Jisung stays behind, saying he’ll catch up with them. The vision of the dark liquid attacking the river in his soul plagues his thoughts as he stands in the empty hallway. Was that some sort of prophecy? Will he end up completely darkened by his past?

At the end of the hallway is an open space without a wall, giving view to the half-dead trees next to the temple. Behind them, the statue of Aang rises above it all, his head and shoulders illuminated by the warm colours of the sky. Jisung finds himself simply staring at him, enchanted.

In the spur of the moment, he starts running to it. Away from the temple, past the trees and abandoned training spaces and stone walkways and jumps into the water. Using two blasts of air from each hand, he elevates himself above it as he soars across the sea to the small plot of land the statue stands on.

Once he plants his feet on the surface, he notices a small plaque in front of the giant statue. It reads  _ “AANG STATUE ISLAND” _ , a small space for contemplation and appreciation. Aang stands on a circular stone structure, some lights from the floor giving his statue a bright teal hue to it as the sky gets darker and darker. Jisung stands below him, probably the height of his foot, and cranes his neck to gaze up at his body.

“How did you do it?” Jisung asks the statue, “Fight off the darkness, I mean. I couldn’t even  _ control _ it, it just happened before I could stop it. But you, you were before Dejun, you were an Airbender. How did you do it?”

He knows he won’t get a response, but he asks anyway.

“Maybe if I just, try again by myself here I can do it. I need your wisdom,” he says, and sits down in the middle of the space, right underneath the statue. He crosses his legs in lotus position, and clasps his hands together in prayer. He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and begins blocking out his thoughts.

The sounds of the crashing waves and wind flowing around him disappears as he breathes in and out, bringing something out in the depths of his soul, some untapped entity he wants to unleash. The river vision comes back into his brain, the pure white water rushing rapidly through his body. The strength of the current pours into his whole body, every limb encapsulated by the light.

Then, the black comes in at once, turning the water greyer and greyer until only that small sliver of white is left. He struggles to breathe, gurgling and holding back chokes. He forces himself to swallow, scrunching his face up and  _ pushing  _ the black colour away. And, it does go away, slowly eroding as the white expands, engulfing every dark colour in sight and speeds up the more surface it covers. Eventually, the river turns completely white, the black having been pushed back to collect around it like little sand banks.

Then, something explodes within him. He gasps as he leaves . . . his own body?

Standing upright, he looks down at his own figure in front of him, still sitting cross legged. He looks down at himself, at the one standing outside his body. He’s blue. Literally translucent, blindingly bright, sky blue.

“What the fuck?” he says, whipping his head around and looking in all directions, “What happened to me?”

“You are in your spirit form,” another voice says, high-pitched and childish, like whoever’s speaking has too much spit in their mouth.

Jisung jumps, “Huh? Who are you? What happened to me?”

“Turn around, stupid!”

Jisung spins instantly, and his head goes slack at who is standing before him. It’s Avatar Aang, when he was still twelve, clad in his yellow and orange robes and blue arrow poignant on his head.

“Aang?” he asks.

“You reached out to me, so I answered! It seems you have a lot of questions.”

“I—y-yeah, like, what happened to me?”

“Well, this is your spirit form. You’re the bridge between the two worlds, if you meditate like you just were and become one with your soul you ascend here, where you can talk to your past lives, like me!”

“Oh,” Jisung says. “Wait so, I did it?”

“Yep! I guess you can continue your Airbending training now, but you still need your Waterbending and Earthbending teachers. You’ve come to the right place to find them, though.”

“Really? I’ll find them here?”

“You can find anything you’re looking for in Republic City. I made it this way when I initially founded it. There is no prejudice from the War here, and the army from other countries can’t get involved. That’s why there are so many wanted posters from other countries, because they can’t send their men in. You’re safe here.”

“How will I know who needs to be my bending teachers? I just like, stumbled across Jaemin.”

The environment around them disappears, and is replaced by what looks like an arena of some sort, one half coloured red, the other half coloured blue. It is held in the air above a large pool, and many audience seats stack high above them in all directions outside the pool. A lone spotlight shines on the two, and Aang looks him in the eye as he speaks.

“Your teachers will be both experts in their respective fields. Agile, brave, graceful, and easily adaptable to modern fighting styles. Your Waterbending teacher will be calm in a fight, aggressive but knowing when and when not to pursue an opponent. He will know fluidity, being very precise and accurate, but sometimes may be a little too assertive. 

Your Earthbending teacher will be grounded, firm and stubborn as all Earthbenders are. He will be a true master of his art, not giving all his energy out in one blow. He will stay back, waiting and listening for the right time to strike. Once he does, he is unstoppable, vanquishing every fight he is in. When you see them it will just  _ click _ , it did for me and I’m certain it will for you, too.”

Jisung nods, “In the city I will find these people?”

“You will. Tell your friend Jaemin that not all hope is lost for his heritage. The more he teaches you, the more he will realize himself what it really means to be an Airbender. The answers are all here, in Republic City. Now go back to your human form, your friends are worried about you.”

“Right. Uh, thanks Aang. That feels really weird to say, cause you’re like, dead. Anyway, how do I go back?”

“It’s really easy, just gradually let your senses take in everything around you. Also, beware. Your immediate past life still looms in your soul. If you aren’t careful, you might get plagued by his evil.”

After Aang speaks, Jisung closes his eyes. The sound of the rushing water hits him first, then the perspiration only his skin, then his breathing. He opens his eyes again, and he is back in his own body.

Standing up, he looks out at the city with Aang’s statue, breathing in the salty air. He has two months to find his teachers in the concrete jungle, and the reminder of the mighty price on his head crawls up his back, prickling like thorns. But, tomorrow is a new day. And he will start there with his friends to help him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> congratulations u made it through this beast ! aang randomly fucking showed up cause i wasn't about to replace him with like an nct member to fit the story cause that would just be even weirder so there you go you get that im sorry. thank you all so much for leaving kudos and commenting on this btw it gives me motivation to keep writing this lmao ! i wonder who jisung's waterbending and earthbending teachers are though...who do u think?


	6. Winner Takes All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He squints at the large, bubble-like font at the top of the paper. “I . . . what does this mean?”
> 
> “What does what mean?” Jaemin asks. “Read it out loud!”
> 
> “Pro bending semi-finals, colon, Rabaroos vs Catagators?”
> 
> “Oh my—pro bending? Gimme that!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayeee so i am so sorry this tookso long to come out, i write this fic three chapters in advance and the one i just finished was kicking my ASS on top of the summer coursework i had to finish but its out now sorry for the wait ! also like just a note if u watched lok and are like bruh this is inaccurate its bc some of the stuff in lok i just. pretended did not happen cause they ruined the universe for me so this is just my version of the universe good day. happy reading !

“So,” Jaemin says, half a vegetable kebab shoved in his mouth as the three of them walk around the city, “Where are we going today? We only just started the second quarter of your Airbending training.”

“Chew with your mouth closed, you slob,” Jeno complains.

Jaemin wipes some of the sauce off his cheek and licks it off his finger. “Whoops.”

Jeno gags.

“I don’t really know.” Jisung says. “In the spirit realm I was told I’d find the teachers I need here, so I guess we just . . . walk around until we stumble into one? I dunno.”

“Sounds vague,” Jaemin says mid-chew, squelching noise making Jeno grimace.

“Sounds almost impossible,” Jeno adds. “We don’t even know how many people live in the area, let alone the entire city. I think your vision is going to send us on a wild goose chase.”

Jisung sighs, fiddling with his fingers as they walk. “I think you might be right, I’m sorry. But we have to at least try for a bit.”

“I guess.” Jeno squints up at the sky. “I just don’t want to get sunburnt walking around all day.”

“Always so fussy,” Jaemin says. “Well, was there anything else in your vision that could help us figure out where you could find them? Like a visual?”

Jisung pauses, pouting his lips. “Um, there was this moment where everything around me, like, changed, in the vision. I was in this arena type-thing, standing on this hexagon-shaped ring suspended above a pool. Half of it was blue, half was red.”

Jaemin perks up. “Oh? Anything else about it?”

“Uh, there were audience seats all around me. A lot, but they were empty though.”

Jeno shrugs. “Sounds like a pro—“

Suddenly, a large piece of paper whips Jisung square in the face.

Jaemin stifles a laugh, choking on a piece of squash while Jeno snorts.

“Not funny,” Jisung whines as he peels the paper off swiftly and holds it on opposite ends to inspect it.

He squints at the large, bubble-like font at the top of the paper. “I . . . what does this mean?”

“What does what mean?” Jaemin asks. “Read it out loud!”

“Pro bending semi-finals, colon, Rabaroos vs Catagators?”

“Oh my—pro _bending?_ Gimme that!”

Jaemin snatches the poster, him and Jeno looking at it eagerly. Even the stoic Kyoshi Warrior is willingly showing interest in it, this should be interesting.

“Wow, the Catagators are really on a winning streak, huh? D’you think they’ll actually manage a win over the Eelhounds this year for the championship?” Jaemin says.

Jeno shakes his head. “Nah, not with the Vanquisher on their team. Though, the Catagators _are_ doing really well this season.”

Jisung clears his throat, obviously confused.

Jaemin raises a brow. “Have you never seen a pro bending match?”

“Uh, no.”

“Wow, you’re missing out. I would tune into some matches on the radio all the time back on Kyoshi Island,” Jeno says, looking up as if to recall the events in his mind.

“And I would watch matches on my crappy old T.V back at home!” Jaemin exclaims.

“What, like, _is_ it? Is it a sport?”

Jaemin wraps an arm around Jeno’s shoulders. “Hell yeah it’s a sport! I’ll give you a breakdown.”

“Uh, okay!”

“So! There’s two teams per match, and three players per team: one Firebender, one Waterbender, and one Earthbender. When the game starts, each bender uses their powers to try and push the other team off the ring.”

“Into the pool?”

“Yeah! Ugh, it’s easier to explain if it’s right in front of me to label it all. Can we go to the game?”

“When is it?”

Jaemin looks back at the paper, then up at Jisung with sparkling eyes.“Tonight! Eight PM sharp. _Pleeeeease_ can we go?”

Jisung scratches his cheek. “Well, if the ring you’re talking about is the ring I saw in my vision, maybe I’ll find my Waterbending or Earthbending teachers there. It’s worth a shot, I guess.”

 _“Yes!_ It’s gonna be so much fun, promise!”

“Okay, if you two like it, then I want to see what it’s about.”

Jeno speaks up, “How have you never heard of pro bending, anyway? It’s a really popular sport. Like, it’s a _really_ big deal. Pro benders are practically like celebrities.”

“I dunno, I didn’t have a television back at home, they’re too expensive and they take up so much space, we didn’t have room for it.”

“Oh,” Jeno blushes. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to single you out or—“

“It’s okay,” Jisung interrupts him, running a hand through his recently dyed hair. A few days back Jaemin suggested they change their appearances so they wouldn’t directly match the descriptions on their wanted posters. So, Jisung lightened a few sizable tufts of hair blonde, too scared to do something too drastic, and Jaemin now sported a striking blue. Jeno refused to dye his hair lighter than brown. “I don’t mind talking about it, my brother and I weren’t rich. Barely had any radio stations, too.”

“Well!” Jaemin interjects, “You’re gonna have the time of your life, I’ll make sure of it. How are you with crowds?”

≈

Turns out, Jisung is not so hot with large crowds.

The trio stand in a long winding line in front of the grand Pro Bending Stadium, an enormous building gold in colour, lit up by ground spotlights in the evening and practically demanding attention. A large circular glass dome sits atop the structure, likely where they hold the matches, and four gold spires tower above it on each corner of the building.

The structure itself is on the end of a pier that extends into Yue Bay, and the length of the line they are in could probably wrap around the arena five times and then some. The sound of people’s endless chatter and the Satomobiles rumbling on the street makes Jisung want to crawl in a hole and never come out.

“When you said it was huge, I didn’t know you meant _this_ huge,” Jisung says, reaching for Jaemin’s shoulder to hold onto.

“Don’t worry, nobody recognizes us! If anyone would stare at you, it would be because of your hair.”

“I don’t want people looking at me! Why did we come here again? I want to go back to the island.”

“No, you don’t. You have to learn to be in front of a lot of people, you’re literally the Avatar. Besides, you saw the arena in your vision. We might actually find something useful in there.”

“Yeah,” Jisung says. He takes a deep breath. “I can do this.”

He keeps his hand glued to Jaemin’s shoulder as they move forward in the line. The closer they get to the entrance, the better Jisung can make out the huge poster flapping on the front of the stadium. Two groups of three stand on either side, facing each other and snarling. The team on the left’s uniforms are white, with red chest plates, boots, and arm guards. The name ‘ _RABAROOS_ ’ hangs above them in gold. The other team’s uniforms are mainly green, where the Rabaroo’s uniforms are red are a deep pine needle shade on their team, _‘CATAGATORS’_ respectively floating above their heads. Around each of their waists are coloured ribbons that match the colour of their helmets, which shield their face with clear protective casing but tied around their heads with simple buckling to let their hair free.

“The ribbon colours, are those to say what elements they bend?”

“Yep!” Jaemin exclaims. “Green for earth, blue for water, and red for fire!”

“Why aren’t there any Airbenders on the team?”

“There just aren’t enough of us for every team,” is Jaemin’s simple reply. “Anyways, this game should be good. The Catagators are especially good this year after their tough loss last season.”

“So I should root for them?”

“Root for whoever you want, but I think Jeno would kill you if you liked any team that isn’t the Catagators.”

Jeno groans. “I hate you.”

Jaemin laughs. “He’s just mad, ‘cause one time a few years back I went into his room and saw his fifty posters of _Renjun Huang_ on his wall. Honestly, I was jealous.”

Jisung snickers.

“You had nothing to be jealous of!” Jeno retorts. “I still liked you more than him.”

“Aw!”

Jisung’s amusement quickly turns into disgust. Luckily for him, they’re now in the front of the line and Jaemin steps up to the glass-covered booth to buy their tickets. The clerk slides three red slips of paper through a hole in the window, and in the blink of an eye they are ushered through the doors into the stadium.

He nearly gapes at the sheer size of the arena before him. It is just as he saw in his vision with Aang, except the seats are practically full to the brim with spectators chattering and walking to their seats. Every noise they make echoes loud throughout the space, making Jisung’s ears throb as they walk up a flight of side-stairs to their seats. A large jumbotron suspends down from the glass dome, displaying the ring for the audience at the back.

Their seats are actually quite decent, smack dab in the middle of the right-side section so they can see both sides at an equal distance. A large analog clock hangs high on the adjacent wall, signalling three minutes until the game starts.

“Wow, it‘s just like what I saw in my vision,” Jisung says.

“No duh!” Jaemin replies, then points down at the ring. “Okay, see those metal grates on the bending ring? Those mark each ‘zone’, and each team gets three. Zone one is the one in the centre, zone two is the one right after, and zone three is the small one on the end. Basically if one team manages to push the other team behind one of those lines into zone two, they get to advance forward into the losing team’s zone one, and so on. If one team either gets knocked out of the ring or has less zones after three minutes, they lose the match.”

“How many matches are there?”

“Four. It seems like a short amount of time, but you really get into it, trust me. Oh wait, it’s starting!”

The lights around the stands dim, and the large spotlights on the arena brighten, drawing Jisung’s attention and making him sit up in his chair.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” A voice exclaims, sharp and peppy, blaring through the speakers around the audience. Must be the official commentator. “Welcome to the annual pro bending semi-finals!”

The crowd roars around him.

“Hold onto your seats, because tonight is a big deal. Whoever wins this game gets to advance to the final championship cup against the fearsome Eelhounds! Now, welcome your beloved team, the one and only, Rabaroos!”

The cheers grow louder as a pathway appears from the left side of the arena. Three men step forward, smiling and waving all around as they make their way to the red side of the ring, the pathway crumbling behind them as they walk. They stop when they hit zone one.

The commentator speaks again,“Tonight we have their Earthbender, the tough and tactical Sicheng, their Waterbender, the smooth and strong Johnny, and last but not least, the terrific crowd-favourite, Jaehyun!”

Cheers and whoops are heard after every player’s introduction.

“Now, here come the Catagators, on their way to keep their winning streak!”

Two women and one man approach the ring from the blue side on their own Earthbended pathway, and if the crowd loved the Rabaroos, they _adore_ this team with how loud they get. Even Jeno lets out a singular _woo!_ as they walk to their respective spots opposite their opponents.

“In the ring tonight is the small but fiesty Earthbender Yerim,” The commentator says, a short girl with a high ponytail waving her arm wildly, “the wise and vicious Firebender Seulgi,” a slightly taller woman raises her hand and flashes the audience a piercing grin into the jumbotron. “And the young, wild and whimsical Waterbender Renjun!”

The crowd erupts into roars for the young Waterbender. He’s not much taller than Seulgi, and looks pretty slender, but regardless he looks like a force to be reckoned with. His black hair falls over the blue on his helmet, accentuating his sharp ice blue eyes. He pushes his hair back smoothly with a grim face, like he’s bored of the game already. Jisung can see why Jeno used to have a crush on him.

From the corner of his eye he notices Jaemin wrapping a protective arm around Jeno’s shoulders, smile still plastered on his face. Jeno rolls his eyes and grabs his hand, intertwining their fingers and giving it a small squeeze.

The players all spread out after the overhead buzzer sounds, some of them stretching out to prepare for the game.

The commentator counts down from three, and another buzz signals the beginning of the round. Immediately, the players spring into action. Sicheng lifts a few earth disks from the dispensers on the floor and aims them directly at Seulgi, who ducks out of the way in an instant.

“Nice dodge from Seulgi of the Catagators,” the commentator says, “Now she’s playing the offense, trying to push Johnny back into zone two!”

Suddenly, Johnny bends a surge of water in her direction, only lasting a second, but it pushes her so far back her foot skims the line of zone two. The buzzer sounds, and the centre line flashes green.

“What a play by the Rabaroos! The Catagators are pushed back into zone two!”

The rest of this round is spent by the Rabaroos attacking the Catagators, and them trying their best to avoid getting knocked back another zone.

Eventually the timer goes off, and the commentator signals the round over, a bright red light on the wall of the arena settling the score one to zero.

Renjun rolls his neck, eyes suddenly more fierce than ever. He walks to his partners to whisper something, and they nod and spread out. The other team seems a little more tired, taking more time to walk back to their zone to start the second round.

The buzzer erupts once again and the Catagators seem to be back on their feet, Yerim dishing out disks faster than lightning and Seulgi dodging Johnny’s attacks once again.

“Looks like Seulgi’s trying to tire Johnny out! Good strategy, but what is Renjun planning?” the commentator adds.

Renjun is found face-to-face with Jaehyun, the man practically towering over his small stature. Jisung’s attention is commanded by him at once, cornering in on his every movement. He watches as Renjun steadies himself, then summons a large water whip and whacks Jaehyun with it before letting the liquid fall to the floor. Each water attack can’t be longer than one second.

Jaehyun is pushed back forcefully, but quickly regains composure. Before he gets the chance to lift his hand to bend, Renjun is back on him with a blast of water to the right knee. When Jaehyun’s leg shoots backward from impact, Renjun hits him three more times, hitting both his shoulders then his chest. Jaehyun stumbles backwards, then Renjun delivers the knockout blow. One large swipe to the ankles, knocking him down, then a hard hit to his chest, sending him past zone one, then two, then all the way to the end of the ring until he falls into the pool below.

“Holy cow! What a knockout from the Catagators! Now it’s just Johnny and— _nevermind!_ Seulgi delivers a searing hit, then Renjun comes in and wipes him off the ring!”

Jisung’s eyes go wide as he watches Renjun’s moves. Calm, effortless yet precise and aggressive. Knows when and when not to engage in a fight.

When Renjun throws Sicheng into the pool below with Yerim, he realizes.

“It’s him,” he mutters.

Jaemin yells over the crowd’s cheering as the round ends, “What?”

“That guy, Renjun. I think he’s supposed to be my Waterbending teacher.”

The way Jaemin’s jaw drops is almost comical. “Wait, we found him? You’re sure?”

“Aang said it would just click. And it did, just now. I know it has to be him, like I knew you had to teach me back at the Air Temple.”

Jaemin turns his head over to Jeno and relays the information. Jeno leans over to gape at him. _“Renjun?_ You’re serious about this.”

“I’m serious.”

“Oh, Spirits. Of course you had to pick the celebrity.”

Jaemin lifts a hand to hold his chin. “How are we even supposed to talk to him? You can’t exactly walk up to somebody like that.”

“Sure you can,” Jeno responds. “If the Avatar wants him as his teacher, then that’s exactly what we have to do. They probably have a dressing room somewhere in the building, we just have to make it there undetected by the bodyguards. I can get us in.”

“You can?” Jisung asks.

“I think you’re forgetting the kind of warrior I am,” answers Jeno with a slight grin. Only a slight one.

“Thank you, Jeno.”

The Catagators bask in the glory of the fans’ cheers after the crazy knockout, and are crowned the winners of the event. The commentator wraps up the game, and soon enough everybody is shuffling out of their seats and spilling back onto the city sidewalk.

Except for Jisung, Jeno, and Jaemin.

They manage to sneak around to the side of the stadium where the player’s dressing rooms are kept through the large crowd, tailing one of the bodyguards who unknowingly takes them right to the front door. They stop around the corner of the hallway to avoid detection.

“Stay here, I’ll take care of this,” says Jeno, then he moves into the hallway, right out in the open, and jumps up to the ceiling, where he crawls until he is right above the bodyguard. He slips his feet in a gap between a pipeline and the ceiling, his hands letting go of the other pipes he was clinging to and hanging upside-down like a bat. Then, he takes out his old headdress he usually carries in his back pocket and gags the man with it.

The bodyguard tries to yell for help and push Jeno but he is too quick, flipping forwards and landing on the ground silently in front of him. Before the man can register what is happening, Jeno pushes on the pressure points on his shoulders and his arms hang limp at his sides, his body crumpling to the floor after.

Jeno gestures for them to come forward, and Jisung and Jaemin do, in awe of what just happened.

Jeno swipes the keys from the bodyguard’s utility belt, and inserts key after key into the keyhole until the right one goes in, and he twists the door open abruptly.

The Catagators are definitely caught off guard, Yerim frozen in her spot at a table in the corner of the room and Seulgi gasps in shock as she puts her hair into a low ponytail. Renjun is the only one that looks slightly calmer than the rest, having changed out of his pro bending uniform and looking casual in a deep blue shirt and black sweatpants. He’s just removing his helmet by his locker when they walk in and he goes, “If you’re a fan looking to ask Yerim out, she’s not currently in the market for a relationship. Now go before security beats your ass.”

Jisung cringes and Jeno’s breath catches in his throat. This is super awkward.

Jaemin clears his throat. “That’s not why we’re here.”

“Then why _are_ you here? In our private dressing room?”

“You’re Renjun, right?”

Renjun places his helmet on a shelf in the locker and shuts the door, not giving them a single glance. “Who’s asking?”

“Uh, well, the Avatar.”

That gets Renjun’s attention. He turns his head to look at them, and sizes Jaemin up and down. _“_ No you’re not, nice try.”

Jaemin shakes his head. “No, I’m not, but my friend Jisung here is,” he says, pointing at the taller for emphasis.

Jisung awkwardly grins, stepping forward and scratching his neck. “Uhm, hi, that’s me. Uh. You were, uh, you were good back there.”

Renjun scoffs, showing off his half-grin and saunters closer to them. “Well, I’ll be damned. Never thought I’d ever meet the Avatar in person, let alone have him break into my dressing room, but here we are.”

“Sorry about that, I just, there really isn’t another easy way to get to you.”

“I guess you’re right. Still, though. Isn’t it dangerous to be walking around showing your face? I’ve seen the posters practically asking for your head on a stake. For a mighty price, too, a lot of people around here need that kind of money.”

Jisung’s eyes dart around the room. “I thought nobody paid attention to those.”

“Most don’t, but it’s a big city with a lot of people who need that money. You never know who’s looking to hunt you down.”

Jisung notes never to trust the optimistic Jaemin again. He scratches the back of his head. “Oh. Uh. Well. Anyway, here’s the thing. This is going to sound super weird, but I was watching you back there and I think you're supposed to be my Waterbending teacher.”

Renjun guffaws, loud. “Woah, there, you’re gonna have to back this truck up. Your _what?”_

Jisung’s mouth opens, then closes, then opens then closes again. God, he has to get better at talking to strangers.

Jaemin pats his back reassuringly, and Jisung clears his throat before speaking. “Listen, um, the world is about to be in way more danger than we thought, and Republic City is going to take the biggest hit. The Earth Kingdom is planning to storm it in around two months and launch ships from Yue Bay into the Fire Nation.”

“Again? Didn’t somebody already try to take over the city like, a hundred years ago?”

Upon Jisung’s confusion and lack of information, Jeno takes over. “Yeah, but ever since the Earth Kingdom royal family got their power back sixty years ago, the Earth King decided he can do whatever he wants. And his army is very strong, he just might do it if we don’t stop him.”

Renjun narrows his eyebrows. “That’s absurd. They aren’t allowed to even _enter_ the United Republic of Nations.”

“They don’t care,” Jisung continues. “With the strength of their forces, they’ll do it anyways and the police probably won’t be able to stop them. I have to master waterbending before that happens so I can stop this plan, and it has to be you who teaches me.”

Renjun runs a hand through his hair before scratching the crown of his head. He pushes a breath out through pursed lips and looks down. “You know this is going to happen? Also, you’re fucking batshit crazy if you think you can master Waterbending in two months.”

“Positive.”

“Why me? Why do I have to teach you? I don’t even know you, we’re not even acquaintances.”

“The universe said so. Avatar senses, and stuff. Just trust me when I say it clicked when I saw you.”

“Hm,” Renjun puts his hands in his pockets, and leans on the adjacent wall, facing the trio. “What’s in it for me? I could easily just hand you over to the Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation and be on my merry way with stacks of gold.”

“Uhh,” Jisung looks back at Jeno and Jaemin, who shrug. “bragging rights?”

That gets a real, hearty laugh out of Renjun. But, he keeps silent for a minute, mulling it over. Jisung crosses his fingers.

“How can I trust you?” Renjun asks. “Your last reincarnation started this whole War shit. What if you’re just using me?”

Jisung panics. “What—no! I swear I wouldn’t do that, more than anything I just want to fix all this.”

Renjun hums, looking him dead in the eyes for a moment. Jisung holds his breath.

“I’ll have to talk to my partners,” he finally says, walking over to a shocked Yerim and Seulgi. They converse in harsh whispers, Seulgi looking very stern when Renjun explains something inaudible. Then, she nods. Yerim shrugs, then goes back to her seat and opens a packet of sizzle-crisps.

“Okay,” Renjun says, turning back to Jisung. He crosses his arms. “I’ll be your teacher.”

Jisung nearly leaps off the ground to click his heels. “Oh my—really? I swear you won’t—“

“Hold on, I’m not done!” he interrupts, “I still think you’re still fucked if you want to master Waterbending in this time limit, but you’ve got guts. And the determination, I saw it in your eyes when you tried to talk me into this. I think you’re worth teaching. But, only after the Championship Tournament. It’s in a few days, and I need that time to get ready. If you meet me here when the game is done, I’ll join your little team. I need the luck.”

“Against the Eelhounds, right?” Jeno asks, finally speaking up while rubbing the pads of his index finger and thumb together. He looks fine to anybody else, but for Jeno standards, that’s equivalent to him literally exploding before their eyes.

Renjun scowls. “Very observant, Captain Obvious.”

“Sorry.”

“What’s the big deal about the Eelhounds, anyway? Sorry, I don’t really know pro bending teams,” Jisung says.

Renjun gives him a forced laugh. “The big _deal_ is that they’ve been our team’s rival for four years and counting. They used to be a novice team, we even beat them once four years ago, until the Vanquisher came in out of fucking nowhere and joined them. Now they’re unstoppable.”

“Who’s the Vanquisher?”

“Who _cares?_ ” is Renjun’s reply. His eye faintly twitches as he talks. “That team is just a bunch of arrogant assholes who think they’re hot shit because they’re sponsored by a telecommunications company. But who knows, maybe if the Avatar is there we have better odds. Maybe you’re our lucky charm, we’ve never gotten three knockouts before today.”

Jisung blushes. “A-anyway, when’s the tournament?”

“Three days. Eight PM, as usual. After that, I’ll join you. Understood?”

The three of them nod.

“Okay, you can go away now."

As they turn around and head out the door, Renjun speaks again, “Wait.”

Jisung spins around.

“For the record, you seem like a nice kid. I don’t see the resemblance to Avatar Dejun at all.”

Jisung smiles from ear to ear, then Jeno closes the door behind them.

Jeno takes his headdress back from around the poor bodyguard’s face, returns his keys, and they calmly exit the building, Jeno and Jaemin talking excitedly about meeting the Catagators.

Jisung walks behind them, thinking about what Renjun said. Somebody believes in him.

≈ 

The day of the Championship Tournament comes around soon enough, and Jisung mentally prepares himself for the large amounts of people he will have to run into as him, Jaemin, and Jeno walk to the stadium.

They spent the last three days training and tidying, trying to decipher the murals on the walls and cleaning up the dusty training areas around the island. Jisung learns a few new Airbending forms, tries them out, fails many times, but eventually they’re solid and secure.

Now that the day has arrived and they’re in front of the stadium, music from inside rattling his entire body, Jisung realizes truly how big this sport is.

A different banner sways in the breeze tonight, one nearly the size of the entire front wall, brandished in bright colours and explosive letters reading _‘CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS: WINNER TAKES ALL!’_ right in the centre. Three people are illustrated on the poster, but only one is especially highlighted. _‘THE VANQUISHER’_ is written below his feet, and Jisung looks up and up to see his face . . . but it’s covered by the tournament writing. He looks strangely intimidating with his face masked over, hands securely on his hips.

He points up at the poster. “That’s the guy Renjun hates?”

Jaemin answers, “Yep, the one and only.”

“What’s his deal, then?”

“Nobody really knows. Well, nobody outside the pro bending inner circle anyway. His whole identity is this huge well-kept secret, all anybody knows is that he came in at fourteen years old, and has been unstoppable since, beating everybody like it’s nothing. Because of him, the Eelhounds have never lost a game. That’s why they call him the Vanquisher, he never goes all out in the beginning, but when he steps in and takes over the game ends like _that_ ,” he snaps his fingers for emphasis.

Jeno lightly swats Jaemin’s shoulder. “We’re not here for him, though. Remember, we’re meeting Renjun after this.”

“Right,” Jaemin says. “Let’s go in!”

Jisung nods, taking one last glance up at the faceless figure on the banner before stepping into the large crowd with his friends.

They make their way through the other audience members into the main arena, finding it much harder to navigate this time. Swarms of people clog the stairs and seat rows, Jisung having to trip and shuffle through them all to find his seat. For being one of the last people to get tickets for the show, they’re stuck with the row farthest to the back, rising high above the playing ring and off to the side. Jisung drums on his thighs, looking around for cues that the event will start.

Eventually, the familiar voice of the sports commentator rings loud over the noise, the lights brightening down below. “Welcome, ladies and gents, to the final pro bending match of the season, the Championship tournament!”

The crowd cheers in acknowledgment. Jisung timidly claps and sits forward in his seat.

“Tonight's the night we have all been waiting for. Whoever wins this game takes home the Championship Cup, along with one hundred _thousand_ yuans!”

Jisung gapes. “A hundred _thousand?”_

“I told you, it’s a big deal,” Jaemin says.

The commentator continues, “This has to be the most anticipated fight of the entire season, two rival groups coming back to battle again, for the fourth time in a row. Will the Catagators take their winning streak straight to the money, or will they be bested yet again by the fearless Eelhounds?”

The Catagators are again introduced, each of them waving to the multitude of cameras flashing around them. Renjun wears his usual scowl, fixing the straps on his helmet as he walks onto the red side of the ring.

“And now, introducing the baddest, most illustrious team in the game, the mighty Eelhounds!” the commentator yells, and the crowd goes nearly ballistic. People leap up from their chairs to cheer, and some wave objects about in the air for the team.

Three men walk onto their pathway, a large spotlight following them as they move. They all wave to the cameras, and Jisung is surprised they haven’t gone blind from all the flashing directly into their eyes.

“Which one is the vanquisher? The tall guy on the right?” he asks.

“Shh! You’ll see,” replies Jaemin, pointing down to the trio.

“To our left we have our classy, never-dull Waterbender Kunhang,” explains the commentator, the man in question pushing back his silky black hair and giving the jumbotron a pearly-white smile, “to the right is our happy-go-lucky, energetic Firebender Yangyang,” a man with copper hair jumps up, waving his arms in the air and riling up the crowd, “and front and centre is their Earthbender, the one, the only, the Vanquisher!”

Jisung’s attention narrows on him through the television screen as he steps forward, sending the crowd wild. He’s a lot shorter than he expected, a significant height gap between him and his team members, but in no way does that make him timid. He stands proud on his side of the ring, bright blonde curls spilling over his forehead and grazing his eyeline. His eyes are sharp yet round, a sparkling hazel as the lights shine down on him through his helmet. His gaze travels down his little button nose and stops on his smug smile, rosy colour of his lips matching the tint on the apples of his cheeks. He waves into the jumbotron, fluttering his fingers cutely and Jisung finds his breath caught in his throat.

The Eelhounds’ uniforms are grey with black protective guarding, which contrasts the Vanquisher’s pale skin, and an emerald green ribbon is tied in a bow around his lithe waist. It should be impossible to look good in one of those clunky uniforms, but he makes it work wonders.

Jisung doesn’t even notice that the first round has started until it’s over, the sound of the buzzer taking him out of his thoughts and making him look over to check who won. The Catagators took round one, it seems like, and he remembers why they’re actually here. He looks around and spots Renjun on the blue side of the ring, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

He leans over to Jaemin, “Did the Vanquisher even move the whole round?”

“That’s his thing. He never really plays the first round, he always takes time to listen and assess the other team.”

If that’s true, the Vanquisher certainly seems to be taking his time because the second round goes by and the Catagators won yet again, the other team taking the defensive side instead of going in head-on. One more win and the game is over, Jisung is questioning whether he’s really all he’s jacked up to be.

Renjun fiddles with his uniform and rolls his neck, obviously amped up by their win count. Jisung looks to the other team, and the Vanquisher stands off to the side, eyes flicking from one player to the next with a straight face.

The buzzer sounds and the third round begins, the Catagators immediately going for the offensive, giving it all they have to take the Eelhounds out.

“Looks like the Catagators are out for the win this time! Will they take the Championship Cup this year?” the commentator asks.

Kunhang nods to Yangyang, and suddenly their defenses weaken, letting Seulgi and Yerim throw them over into the pool. In an instant the Vanquisher is the only one left on his team, cornered all the way into the third zone. Jisung glances up at the timer. Thirty seconds left of the round.

Then, he activates. Renjun directs one of his water attacks at the Vanquisher, going to sidestep in his direction and launch a water whip. The rest relays to Jisung in slow motion, the way the Vanquisher seems to sense what he was doing way before it even happened. As soon as Renjun lifts his foot to move forward, the Vanquisher lifts an earth disk with a flick of his hand and lunges forwards, sending the disk straight to Renjun’s ankle.

It hits him so hard Renjun falls off-balance and he practically catapults into the air, flying backwards over one zone, two zones, _three zones_ , _four zones,_ all the way to the other end of the ring where he skids onto zone three and falls off the edge. Knockout.

Jisung’s jaw hits the floor. The whole arena holds their breath. Even the commentator hiccups his monologue before he keeps going. There’s twenty seconds left on the clock for the round. 

In the blink of an eye the Vanquisher is back into action and lifting more and more earth disks, twisting and ducking from attacks while delivering ones of his own, aiming two disks directly at a disgruntled Yerim and she falls to the floor, backwards one zone. He pushes Seulgi back with her in record time. The light for the Vanquisher’s zone goes green and he is allowed to advance, aerial kicking a few disks at Yerim again, who struggles to block them and takes the impact, jumping back farther and farther with each blow until she too falls off the ring. Ten seconds to go.

“What an amazing turn of events! The Vanquisher, initially down three-to-one, starts wiping out players in record time! What a play by the Eelhounds, getting the Catagators’ adrenaline and ego up so they lose concentration and get sloppy. Now it’s just Seulgi left to fight for her team, but it doesn’t look like she’ll be there for long!”

Five seconds. The audience counts down the clock. The Vanquisher is relentless, with each disk hit Seulgi gets he pushes her back a zone, expertly spinning and punching moves and not even letting her get a single fire fist in until she is backed into zone three. It’s as if he knows what Seulgi is doing before she even does. As the final buzzer sounds, Seulgi falls off the ring.

Jisung joins the crowd this time in cheers and roars of delight, in shock himself at the insane bending he just saw. Jeno beckons him back to sit down.

“The Eelhounds always know how to put on a show,” comments Jaemin.

Through the jumbotron screen, the Vanquisher doesn’t even seem to be breaking a sweat.

 _He will stay back, waiting and listening for the right time to strike. Once he does, he is unstoppable, vanquishing every fight he is in,_ were Aang’s words to Jisung. _Vanquishing._

He looks down at the other, the Vanquisher, who goes back on his side of the ring with his team members.

He just found his Earthbending teacher.

With the knockout, the round is considered over and the Catagators get back on their side of the ring, grimacing and dripping wet.

“What? There’s another round? I thought a knockout meant the end of the game,” Jisung exclaims.

Jaemin shakes his head, yelling over the noise. “Not for the finals, everything’s different in the Championships.”

With the buzzer’s go-ahead, the third round begins and the Catagators give the other team all they have, but judging by the Eelhounds’ cocky grins and laid-back demeanours, Jisung doesn’t think it’s going to be much of a match.

Renjun steps forward with a water whip to the Vanquisher’s chest, but the Earthbender leaps out of the way, spinning horizontally in the air and landing on the ground in a wide stance to send two earth disks his way.

With no time to react, Renjun flies off the side of the ring, slamming against the ropes stretching along it and flipping over them unceremoniously. He makes a strangled noise as he goes down, Jeno’s indistinct sputtering overpowering the commentator’s words.

The Vanquisher quirks the corner of his lips upward for a moment, then refocuses on the match. He runs to help Kunhang with Seulgi, and with a few fancy punches and spins she skids into the water below with Renjun.

Watching him in action alone is a show in itself, Jisung’s brain supplies.

Then, only Yerim is left. Yangyang is on her, keeping her Earthbending at bay by burning out her earth disks and pushing her back a zone, but the Vanquisher taps his shoulder and the Firebender nods, taking a step to the right so he can take over. In the blink of an eye, Yerim is falling off the end of zone three.

A sharp whistle is blown, and the commentator’s voice floods into Jisung’s ears once again. “After that wicked double knockout, the game is a tie. The referee will now have to flip the coin to see which team picks the element to break the deadlock!”

The referee, stepping down from his chair above the ring and standing in the middle of the two teams, displays a large coin in his hand to the cameras. One side is red, one side is blue. He tosses it in the air, catches it in one hand, then flips it over on the back of his other hand to reveal the results. The jumbotron catches the winning colour: blue.

“The Eelhounds win the coin toss,” the referee says, outstretching his hand towards the bending group. Jisung catches Renjun sigh, Seulgi groaning next to him. They know the game is over.

Yangyang smirks, nodding at the shorter Earthbender to his left. “We choose Earth!” he exclaims.

Yerim looks to her team, shrugging at them before pushing her hair out of her face. Both her and the Vanquisher step forward inside a circle outlined in the centre of the ring, border of the area marked with the same metal grates as the zone barriers. As soon as they face each other, the circle slowly rises above the floor, acting as a platform for the tiebreaker match. A countdown of three goes by, and the match begins.

Yerim attempts to lift a disk to fight and throw it, but the Vanquisher manages to take hold of it and redirect it in the opposite direction, right back at Yerim and whacking her right in the stomach, making her body contract forwards and her balance rocking back onto her heels, but she quickly loses balance and falls backwards off the platform.

The crowd explodes in cheers once more and the platform lowers again, the Vanquisher grinning widely and walking back to stand with his group.

The referee grabs the Vanquisher’s hand and raises it up, the winning team waving and riling up the audience. Jisung’s eyes are still set on the powerful Earthbender who won the game in seconds.

Once the referee walks away, Jisung sees the Vanquisher smiling and talking to a frowning Renjun before they part ways. The Eelhounds stay a little longer on the ring to wave to the fans and bask in the glory.

“That game sucked,” Jeno grumbles, getting up from his seat. “Let’s go find Renjun.”

Upon Jisung’s nod, they make their way, legally this time, to the Catagators dressing room where they find Renjun red with fury.

As soon as Jeno closes the door behind them, Renjun kicks a chair leg. “Fucking _hell!_ Spirits above I fucking hate that guy. Did you see his stupid grin afterwards? I swear one day I’m gonna punch it off his face.”

“He’s not that bad,” Yerim chirps, “he invited us to his victory party tonight. And he complimented your skills a few minutes ago!”

“Yeah! And that’s _such_ an aggravating attitude! Why can’t he just be an asshole like the rest of us! I’m going to kill him.”

“Woah, slow your roll, Renjun,” Jaemin chortles, stepping forwards and patting his shoulder, “you were just as good as him out there! You sent him to zone three twice!”

“Yet the son of a bitch still won! And took the prize money, while we get jack shit.” Renjun sits on the chair he just kicked, plopping down on it unceremoniously.

Before he can think about it, Jisung pipes up from where he stands by the door, “You need to take me to him.”

“Huh?”

“The Vanquisher. I have to find him.”

Renjun quirks an eyebrow. Jeno and Jaemin give each other quizzical looks. “Now why in the fuck would you want that? I told you, he is a disgusting little gremlin!” Renjun asks.

“You know how I said it just clicked with you a few days ago, when I asked you to be my Waterbending teacher? Well, it clicked with him. Tonight. He fits the description.”

Jaemin gapes and Jeno scoffs, going to sit on the nearby table where Yerim is pouring a bunch of vibrantly coloured drinks from the mini fridge next to her into clear cups.

Renjun brings a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “No. No no no no _no_ , you have got to be kidding me.”

“Look, I know you don’t like him but—“

“He is my _mortal enemy,_ Jisung. Mortal enemy! Not to mention the most unattainable man in Republic City. Nobody sees him outside of games, you’re screwed.”

“Didn’t you say he invited you to his party tonight?” Jeno asks, sipping on some purple fruity beverage Yerim gave him.

“Sure, but i’m not fucking going and you didn’t get an invite, so that’s a dead end.”

“You can bring a plus-one, everybody does,” Seulgi says, removing her bending helmet.

“No! Never in my life will you see me at Chenle Zhong’s stupid victory party, and if you do, just kill me. I don’t deserve to live anymore.”

Chenle. So that’s his name, huh.

“Please Renjun,” Jisung begs, “I know we don’t really know each other, but I have to get to him. He’s the only person that can teach me Earthbending with any degree of effectiveness, the universe literally could not be more obvious that it’s him, and this might be my only shot at introducing myself. If I don’t learn Earthbending, we’re all fucked, including you. Please?” he weaves his own fingers together and holds them in front of his chest.

“Come on, Renjun. Don’t be a buzzkill!” Yerim whines.

Renjun gives her a deadpan look. Then he grumbles, low, like a rusty engine. “I can’t believe i’m doing this shit.”

“So you’ll take me?” Jisung asks.

“Whatever, I’ll take you as my plus-one. You better count your miracles because it’s going to take one for him to even breathe near you at this party. And you’ll be on your own, he doesn’t do business with crowds.”

“Wait—just me alone with him?”

“Well, what else did you expect? He’s the biggest celebrity in town, you can’t make _me_ do your dirty work.”

“I dunno, I just—I’ve never done this alone before. I don’t have the—I’m—I’m not really that good with words.”

“You seemed pretty alright when you were persuading me to let me take you.”

“I did?”

“Yeah, you get a lot more mature when you’re serious. Makes me forget you’re a kid. Anyway, the party’s in two hours. We can head back to my apartment, change for the occasion, then we’re going. This better be worth it."

“Thank you so much Renjun, really.”

“It’s fine, it’s only my pride and dignity getting stepped on as soon as I walk in there. No biggie.”

“You’re so melodramatic,” Seulgi groans. “It’ll be fun!"

“Yeah, whatever. Let’s go Jisung, you need to change into something nicer. And hope on your lucky stars that Chenle likes the Avatar. He’s Earth Kingdom, he might just hand you over.”

Jisung nods, crossing his arms. “The universe says it’s him who has to teach me, so I have to give it a shot. Let’s go to Chenle’s party.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aand thats a wrap ! we now know who all of jisung's bending teachers are !! all it is now is a matter of if chenle will actually join them . . . what do u think will happen at the party lmao? until next time gamers


	7. Third Time's the Charm?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “This is it, this is the penthouse,” Renjun says, sighing afterwards. He adjusts his button-down shirt, black with white pinstripes, and shifts from foot to foot.
> 
> “Just, behind those doors?” Jisung asks.
> 
> “Yep, we just have to knock.”
> 
> They stand side by side for a long moment of silence, awkwardly looking around the hallway.
> 
> Jisung scratches his cheek. “So, who’s gonna knock?”

Jisung wants to go home.

He stands with Renjun outside a large set of double doors, cream coloured and decorated with a grand wooden carving of a tree, branches expanding to the top edge of the door housing small wood-carved birds and woodland critters. Multicoloured lights come through the gap at the bottom of the door and dance along the marble floor, accompanying thrumming bass dance music muffled through the wall.

It’s the only suite on the entire floor, on the top of a tall apartment complex in the middle of the city.

“This is it, this is the penthouse,” Renjun says, sighing afterwards. He adjusts his button-down shirt, black with white pinstripes, and shifts from foot to foot.

“Just, behind those doors?” Jisung asks.

“Yep, we just have to knock.”

They stand side by side for a long moment of silence, awkwardly looking around the hallway.

Jisung scratches his cheek. “So, who’s gonna knock?”

“I dunno. You knock, I gave you the code pattern.”

“Why me?”

“You asked to come, it’s fair that you should knock.”

“But you know him better, so you should knock. What if he thinks i’m an axe murderer?”

“He won’t, just knock!”

“No, you knock!”

Another moment of silence stretches between them.

Renjun sighs. “Fine, i’ll fucking knock. Stop picking at your jacket, you’ll ruin it.”

Jisung pushes up the sleeves on his black jewel-studded jacket and wipes his sweaty palms on his jeans.

Renjun steps up to the door and lightly raps a small sequence onto it with his knuckles, a code. Jisung feels like he’s a part of a secret club.

“What’s the code mean?” he asks.

“It’s Chenle’s favourite song,” comes Renjun’s reply.

Huh, kinda dorky.

The doors open inwards in unison, two bodyguards on either side even larger than Jisung himself nodding at them to enter. They wear sunglasses tinted so dark he can’t make out their eyes and smooth black suits, and Jisung gulps as he feels them inspect him when he walks in.

The doors close behind him, and immediately strobe lights and rumbling bass melodies hit his senses all at once. His white shirt shines a good deal brighter under the coloured lights and saturated reds and blues and greens reflect off the jewels on his jacket. He initially cringes at how loud the music around him is, but in a few seconds the pounding in his ears settles to a tolerable low throb.

He stands in the foyer of possibly the largest house he’s ever been in, the living room before him stretching out mainly to his left, with a grand archway in the side wall connecting to a lovely open-concept kitchen. Wide floor-to-ceiling windows on the opposite wall display the lively, starlit city below and other skyscrapers meet this one up above the streets. The whole interior is reminiscent of Earth Kingdom décor: dark green walls with a light green border, dark brown wooden floors, cream coloured couches and counters, but that’s all Jisung can really make out because the whole room is packed with dancing partygoers. They drink and talk and laugh over the music, smiles on their faces as they move to the beat. Jisung folds his fingers together in front of him.

“Be cool,” Renjun says, sliding his hands into his front pockets, “but remember why we’re here. Don’t get sidetracked.”

Jisung nods, shuffling closer to his shorter acquaintance. As he takes an initial gander around the room to spot his target, a voice shouts over the music and causes him to nearly jump out of his skin.

“RENJUNNIE!" they say, "Wow, is that really you?” and Jisung looks down and all the air exponges from his lungs at once.

The Vanquisher. Chenle Zhong. Is standing right in front of them, a wide toothy smile taking up his whole face and making his eyes curl up into narrow crescent lines. He opens his arms wide and squeezes Renjun in a fuzzy bone-crushing hug, resting his head on his shoulder, as he only seems to be a small bit taller than him. Renjun does not reciprocate the affection in the slightest.

“Oh, it’s so good to see you! Great game, eh? Hey, everyone!” He turns to the crowd of guests, “Renjun’s here!”

Everybody collectively gives a hearty cheer, some people whooping and hollering making Renjun roll his eyes.

Chenle laughs, high and bubbly, and speaks once the guests are finished. “You’ve never shown up to one of my parties, what brings you here tonight?”

Renjun shrugs. “Yerim told me I should go, your massive ego had nothing to do with this.”

Another laugh, then, “Fair enough. Ah, she’s always been the fun one between you three. Always so serious with you, but we’ll get that fixed right up, don’t you worry!” he pinches Renjun’s cheek, then pats it gently.

Jisung hasn’t realized he’s been staring until Chenle turns to face him, smile shifting into a look Jisung can’t quite figure out as they meet eyes with each other.

He wears a black polo shirt with white stitching on the sleeves and around the two buttons on his chest, form-fitting and tight in all the right places. It’s tucked into black jeans that hug his legs, and a shiny silver belt replaces the green ribbon from earlier, catching his attention as he looks him up and down. A silver chain necklace accents his look from underneath his shirt’s collar, with a small pendant of the Earth Kingdom symbol hanging from it. Kind of like Jisung’s own compass pendant.

Chenle’s eyes travel from his face, down to look at Jisung’s shoes, then back up to his face, making Jisung squirm. “Who’s this?” he asks.

“Just a friend,” Renjun replies. “Don’t scare him off, he’s nice.”

A guffaw escapes Chenle’s lips. “I am  _ perfectly  _ civil!” he says, turning back to Jisung. “What’s your name?”

Jisung suddenly forgets how to speak. He sputters like a fish out of water until the shorter boy giggles, the sultry undertones in it further scrambling Jisung’s brain.

“Mmh, a little shy, I see. That’s alright,” he starts. “Well, you two have fun, okay? Grab some drinks, go dancing, what’s mine is yours!”

Then, he’s walking away, leaving Jisung one lingering look before he disappears into the crowd.

All his previous thoughts are completely taken by Chenle, from the way he spoke to the way his hair was parted to his easygoing smile. He’s pretty sure his gaze left permanent goosebumps on his skin. And heart problems, he could feel it hammering away in his chest.

“Wow,” he breathes out. Then, the rest of his brain catches up to him and the realization dawns on him as he widens his eyes. “Shit, wait come back!”

But it’s no use. Chenle is nowhere to be seen.

“Nice going, airhead. He’s not coming back. I told you, he’s the most unattainable man in Republic City, you’ll really need a miracle if you want to find him again.”

“Why?”

“That’s just how he rolls. He greets you once, and leaves you forever.”

Jisung shakes his head. “We have all night, we’ll find him again.”

“You better hope so. Let’s go look, but remember we have to blend in.”

With that, Renjun grabs his arm and they’re on their way to the kitchen. They push past a few clumps of people, managing to dodge a few drink spills before safely making it to their destination, which is just as lively. People sit on the countertops and some stand next to them, a wide assortment of drinks spread out on the dining table in front of one of the windows. Things ranging from apple juice to soda to cocktails and hard liquor are strewn about, Renjun picking up a can of an atrociously coloured energy drink and cracking it open.

Jisung himself ponders over the selection for a minute, eventually settling on a nice looking mango juice bottle and going to stand next to Renjun.

They both scan the room together in search of Chenle, but to no avail.

“Well, now what?” Jisung asks.

Renjun leans on the dining room table. “Dunno. He’s not here, maybe he’s in the living room?”

Jisung frowns and looks over at the large crowd. “There’s so many people, how are we supposed to find him?”

“You’re the one that needs to find him so bad, figure it out! Blend in, dance or something.”

He pales. “Dance?”

“Yeah, don’t tell me you don’t know how.”

“No, I do, it’s just—it’s just that—ugh,” He looks down at his hands. “It reminds me of something I don’t really want to remember.”

“Fine. I guess we’ll never find him then.”

Jisung worries at his bottom lip. The music  _ is  _ kind of good . . .

“Okay, I’ll go. But I’ll just like, side step or something. Will you come with me?”

“Nope. I don’t dance.”

Jisung gives Renjun a flat look, to which the other shrugs and takes a swig of his drink. He hands him his drink and leaves the kitchen, attempting to shuffle into the crowd seamlessly.

It doesn’t really work, his awkward limbs and too-tall body curling inwards as he makes his way through the crowd, eyes on the lookout for Chenle. He shuffles from foot to foot to make it look like he’s dancing. He looks over to Renjun, who seems to be laughing at him. Ugh. Jisung sticks his tongue out at him and turns back to the crowd.

When the song changes, the crowd cheers from the familiar melody. This must be a popular song in Republic City. People spread out, squishing Jisung flush against a bunch of strangers and form a dance circle, some guy with light purple hair stepping in and riling the group up in the middle. Jisung watches him, jumping and breakdancing and getting the crowd hyped up. He joins the crowd in doing so, so he doesn’t look like the odd one out.

The person then stops dancing, looking around the crowd. He settles his eyes on Jisung and grabs his wrist, pulling him out of the crowd and into the circle. He takes Jisung’s place in the crowd and gestures for him to dance.

Jisung looks around like a deer in headlights. Some people start laughing at him some whispering to each other. Rightfully so, he probably looks ridiculous. Shame pools in the pit of his stomach as he whirls to look at Renjun.

Renjun nods, the only one not laughing, and Jisung squeezes his eyes shut.

A different feeling replaces the pang of sadness he felt when thinking about dancing and the embarrassment from being pulled out into the dance circle, a small flame burns in his chest instead. He’ll show them.

He listens for the beat of the music, then mimics it with his body, all the dance moves he learned as a kid coming back to him in a flurry. He spins and slides and sharply transitions from move to move, surprising the crowd. They must like Fire Nation dance styles, because soon enough they’re hollering for him and cheering him on. A smile plays on his lips.

He relishes in how good it feels to dance again. How it feels to just let go, to stop thinking about everything and be in the present. For a moment, he wonders why he stopped all those years ago.

As he ends his routine, sharply landing on the floor on one leg with the other foot connected to his knee, he opens his eyes.

Through the people pulling him back into the crowd, his eyes widen at who he sees. Short brown hair, grazing her chin. Wispy bangs. Warm brown eyes, caring smile on her face.

“Mom?” he calls, closing his eyes and shaking his head rapidly. When he opens them again, she’s gone.

Shaken and finding it particularly hard to breathe, he pushes himself away from the dancefloor and gives himself personal space. He runs a hand through his hair, exhaling deep through pursed lips. He lets his hand drag from the top of his head down his face, massaging his eyes before looking around for Chenle once again. He’s not leaving without him.

Something prickles at his shoulder blades as he notices someone’s eyes on him. Turning around towards the windows, he finds the boy himself, Chenle Zhong, looking at him.

He’s standing behind the window, and Jisung only just now notices there is a set of French doors leading to a large balcony, where he’s probably been the whole time. He leans on a golden beamed railing, locking eyes with him for a moment before he turns to a small group of people next to him. How long has he been staring for?

Shaking his nerves out, he makes his way to open the balcony doors and step out, the brisk air relaxing his senses as he breathes it in, trying to forget about who he saw on the dancefloor. He slowly walks over to lean on the railing, a fair distance away from Chenle, who has his back to him as he talks animatedly with two others.

Jisung clears his throat, and Chenle turns around for a split second, acknowledging his presence. He waves a pale hand at the people he was talking to and they disperse. He doesn’t do business in crowds.

Chenle suddenly slides a little closer to him, Jisung’s heartbeat accelerating like a race car. “You know,” he says, “you’re gonna have to do a little better than some bleach and a new outfit if you want me to buy your disguise.”

Heat rises to Jisung’s cheeks. He is stunned for a moment, before he stammers an “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Chenle half-grins, turning to look at the cityscape below and resting both elbows on the railing. “I may look stupid, but I know the Avatar when I see him. I knew the moment I saw you, too, but I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt and let you enjoy my party.”

Jisung opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out.

“However,” Chenle says, picking dirt out of one of his fingernails nonchalantly, “here you are. You should leave, call it a night and go home, because I’m not joining your little War effort.”

The neurons in his brain finally catch up with him, and he grips the fabric of his jeans with one hand. “Wait, just, just hear me out.”

“Mmh, as cute as you are when you’re flustered, I think I’ll pass. I don’t want to hear it.”

Jisung opts to ignore what just came out of Chenle’s mouth to prevent leaping off the balcony and screaming. “You don’t get it,” he says, “I hate to get straight to this but I have information that the Earth Kingdom is planning to take over Republic City in a few months. They’re going to launch ships from Yue Bay and destroy the Fire Nation capital, and the rest of the cities along with it. You live here, don’t you care about your city?”

Chenle barely changes facial expression, staring blankly out at the snippets of sky through the tall towers. “I do care, I just don’t think it’s a problem I have to fix. Sounds like an Avatar problem, and I’m not the solution.”

“Well, I’m the Avatar and I’m  _ making  _ it your problem. It’s not really my choice, or yours, as to who does what around here.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that you’re supposed to be my Earthbending teacher, Chenle.”

That snaps Chenle out of his demeanour, just slightly. He gives him a breathy guffaw, chuckling and shaking his head. He looks down at his fingers splayed across the moonlit railing beam.

“I wouldn’t ask you if you weren’t my only option,” Jisung pleads.

Chenle looks at him for a brief moment, giving him a quick  _ tch  _ before turning away again. “I’m sure there are plenty of other Earthbenders in town who want their fifteen minutes of fame that can teach you instead of me. Go find them.”

Jisung steps closer to the shorter boy. “I  _ can’t.  _ The universe sort of chooses them for me, gives me hints to find them and you fit what I know better than anybody. It just,  _ clicked,  _ when I saw you fighting. You kind of have to.”

“Here’s the thing,” Chenle says, gritting his teeth, “I don’t have to do  _ anything  _ you tell me to do.”

There’s a short lull in the conversation as Jisung bites back his angry protests. He studies Chenle’s face for a moment before he breaks the ice. “I see through you,” he ends up saying. “You’re scared to involve yourself, scared to put yourself out there because you don’t want to lose what you have. I mean, look at your reputation, look at your house! It couldn’t be more obvious you’re proud of your work. I was the same way, I was scared to leave my home and come all the way here and I hesitated. Because of that, I lost something important to me. But you, you’re the best Earthbender I’ve ever seen, probably the best Earthbender there  _ is,  _ if anybody can help fight back, it’s you. When the universe is calling to you, don’t hesitate. That’s how you make mistakes.”

Chenle faces him now, eyes swirling with an emotion very familiar to Jisung. Fear. He grips the railing so tightly his knuckles turn white. “I appreciate the advice,” he says, surprisingly stable, “but my answer is no. You can leave my house on your own, or my bodyguards can show you the way out.”

Jisung is stunned. “Chenle, you’re making a mista—“ he protests, but the Earthbender just snaps his fingers to alert the heavyweight bodyguards on each side of the balcony door. Were they always there?

As they walk towards him, Jisung lifts a hand. “I’ll—I’ll leave myself,” he says, giving Chenle one last look. “I’ll change your mind, you’ll see.”

As he walks away and finds Renjun waiting for him through the balcony doors, he feels a pair of familiar eyes on his back, watching him leave.

≈

“You’re fucking kidding,” says Renjun when they get back to his apartment.

The whole group is gathered around Jisung on Renjun’s couch. Said couch is adjacent to a nice set of floor-to-ceiling windows on two of the walls, really taking advantage of the twenty two-storey high view. Nowhere near Chenle’s ninety-five, but still quite substantial. The overhead lights in the living room are off, the kitchen lights from a few metres behind them illuminating Jisung along with the light pollution from outside as he talks.

“He knew who you were?” Jeno asks, puppy eyes slightly showing as he looks at Jisung with pity.

“Yeah, he did,” Jisung replies. “I just, I should have seen it coming but it was really my only easy shot at talking to him.”

“Meh, don’t let it get you down,” says Jaemin. “Earthbenders are stubborn people, and he’s obviously no exception. They’ll stick to their first beliefs until they really realize themselves that there’s another way. It can be good sometimes, but it can be not-so-good at others. It’ll take a real  _ landslide  _ to get them to change their minds, if you catch my drift.”

The room goes silent. Jeno coughs.

“You guys have no sense of humour. Anyways, what I’m saying is that getting him on your side might take a bit, but if it’s meant to be, it’ll be. Who knows, maybe he’ll come around and find  _ you  _ instead!”

Renjun snorts. “Yeah, right. I’m telling you, you don’t just  _ find  _ Chenle Zhong at the fucking breakfast buffet, it’s like he doesn’t even exist outside pro bending.”

“But you’re forgetting a crucial fact,” Jaemin counters, “Chenle is  _ meant  _ to be his teacher. Predicted by the universe, by a past Avatar! The universe will bring him to you, Jisung, you just have to trust it.”

“I hope you’re right,” Jisung says. “Thanks, Jaemin.”

“Any time! Now, it’s late, we should all get some rest. Renjun, what’s the sleep situation?”

Renjun gives his apartment a quick scan. “Uh, Jaemin and Jeno can take the pull-out couch, and Jisung, you’ve got the air mattress. I’ll set it up in my room.”

“Wow. Treating the Avatar like true royalty in here,” Jaemin jokes.

“Look man, this is a one bedroom-one bathroom apartment, this is Republic City luxury living.”

“It’s okay,” Jisung cuts in, “thank you for your hospitality, Renjun.”

“See? Somebody appreciates my kindness. If it weren’t for me you guys would still be stuck in that pile of cobwebs on Air Temple Island.”

Jisung notices Jaemin’s face falling out of the corner of his eye. He opts not to say anything when Jeno grabs his hand and squeezes it, nodding for him to go with Renjun. Almost immediately Jaemin is okay again, kissing his temple as Jisung walks to Renjun’s room.

His room is a pretty decent size, baby blue walls lit up by a stripe of moonlight through a window with open curtains and a double bed pushed up against the back corner wall. Renjun takes off his house slippers and walks over to his closet doors, pulling out the rolled up air mattress and an electric pump.

Jisung watches the mattress automatically fill with air on the floor, the anticipation of what his next nightmare will be tonight putting him in a trance. Every night without fail he’s had bad dreams, usually memories from his past or Dejun’s meddling, sometimes both. He fiddles with his fingers as Renjun lays out a blanket and pillow on top of the now fully risen air mattress, quickly changing into some oversized sweats and climbing into bed.

He stares at the ceiling for a long while, hands folded together on top of his chest.  _ If it’s meant to be, i’ll be,  _ he recalls Jaemin saying, as he slowly succumbs to slumber.

_ He was in downtown Republic City, in broad daylight. The afternoon sun streamed in through the gaps in between tall buildings, lighting up the road in a mosaic of beams and shadows. Pedestrians roamed the street, talking to each other but all Jisung could hear was muffled noise, like he was listening to it underwater. _

_ “Ah, here we are once again, inside your little dream world,” a voice cut in, sharp and clear, echoing with every word. Unmistakably Dejun. “Your brain is so boring, you should summon me sometime, then I can do some real damage.” _

_ Jisung wanted to throw an insult, but he couldn’t speak. His mouth was clamped shut by some invisible force. _

_ Dejun continued, “But fear not, you’ll be seeing me much sooner than you and your group of weaklings ever anticipated.” _

_ Jisung began walking, involuntarily, onto one of the sidewalks against the current of people walking the other direction. As he moved past them, an unfamiliar face settled on him. A man was staring at him, lightly smirking as he walked by him. His eyes glinted with mirth, and as he passed Jisung noticed something on his hand. An emerald green ring on his middle finger. _

_ He could feel the man watching him as he passed, but Jisung couldn't turn his head to look back. His head was fixed in front of him. _

_ Another man’s gaze hit him from in front of a bakery, looking at him with the same intent as the other man. He wore the same green ring on his finger, glinting in the sun. They locked eyes, and suddenly Jisung could no longer look away. The man’s eyes practically bore right through him. He tried to squirm away. but to no avail. _

_ “Your time is running out, young Avatar. The enemy is always closer than you think.” _

Jisung abruptly awakens, short of breath and sweating. He frantically looks around the room, still feeling the aftereffects of the men in his dream looking at him. The sound of the city bustling from through the bedroom window somewhat calms his nerves, and he takes a deep breath to slow his heart rate.

Pushing the blanket off of him and standing up, he checks the digital clock on Renjun’s bedside table. 3:04 AM. Sighing, he rubs at his eyes and checks the door, relieved when he realizes it’s still closed.

He sits on the floor, sliding his back down the wall and slumping his body against it. The day the Earth Kingdom comes is drawing nearer every day, there’s no time for him to wait around anymore. He’s going to find Chenle, even if he has to scour the entire city.

≈

“I’m going out,” Jisung says, wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.

Him and Jaemin have been training for a good portion of the day, using Renjun’s time slot at the local gym to go through new forms and improving his technique. Renjun and Jeno do some practicing of their own on the other side of the room, Renjun using one of the water buckets strewn across the corners of the room to work on his form and Jeno doing some throwing practice with his knives and fans.

“Where to? As much as you deserve a break, it’s only three in the afternoon,” replies Jaemin, hands on his hips and breathing hard.

“Have to look for Chenle. I know he’s around here somewhere, and I should get looking.”

Jaemin sighs. “Jisung, I don’t think it’s a good idea to push him too hard. He has to figure out on his own that he has to help, the universe told you—“

“I’m the one who heard what the universe said, alright? I just don’t think I have time to wait around for things to show up on a silver platter. I have to go.”

“What happened? Last night you agreed with me, what’s got you in such a hurry?”

“Nothing, I’m fine. I just need to find Chenle quickly, we need him.”

Jaemin raises a hand to gesture at the exit door. “I’m not going to stop you. Just, remember what I said, okay?”

“Yeah, I got it. Thanks Jaemin,” Jisung says, and soon after he’s out the door, Jeno’s confused look follows him before he turns a corner.

The warm breeze soothes him as he walks around, tousling his hair and workout sweats with every step. The area he’s in is a lot less busy, on the far western side of the city where the towers are smaller and foot traffic less hectic. Quaint produce markets and souvenir shops line the street, a lovely wafting smell from a nearby restaurant hitting his nostrils from a little farther down and small seeds raining down from the large city-planted trees alongside the sidewalk. He tries to stick to his mission, but ends up in a mental battle with himself on whether to take a mini lunch break. After all, he  _ was  _ working pretty hard today.

Shaking his head no, he sets his eyes forward and trudges on.

Oh, but it smells so  _ good,  _ maybe Chenle can wait a half hour. Jisung chews on his bottom lip, pausing his walk to think.

Finally succumbing to the delicious smell of hot soup, Jisung decides to take a small detour and follows his nose to the restaurant and pushes the door in, a little bell chime ringing from above the door as he enters.

_ ‘The little badger mole’  _ the restaurant is called, the hand-painted green sign greeting him on the black wooden side wall telling him so. Next to the words is the Earth Kingdom symbol, a circle with a small square in the centre. Like Chenle’s necklace. Maybe he’ll find him here?

“Sit anywhere you’d like!” someone hollers from the kitchen.

Jisung gives them his thanks and scours around the restaurant for the best seat. Nobody seems to be inside, though, all of the seats are empty. There aren’t many seats to begin with, only a few are pushed up against the walls and the front window with one booth on the far left corner, and as soon as he spots the comfy leather he bounds towards it, settling down on the cushion and pulling out a menu.

He flips through the very extensive list of teas, steeped teas and tea lattes covering the first four pages of the menu, deciding on a simple jade tea before settling on the soup section.

As he mulls over the pork or the beef noodles, an employee dressed in a flowy black uniform steps in fron the kitchen, apron around his neck and pen in hand. Jisung waits for him to step up to his table and ask for his order, but that moment never comes. Instead, he dodges a few more table corners and bends over a small two-seater table near the front of the room.

A small figure, coated from head-to-toe in black sits there, removing a large sweater hood from his head to speak with the waiter. A set of blonde curls protrude from the customer’s head, the dim lights from above giving them a shiny golden glow.

Jisung sits up straight in the booth. He found Chenle, for a second time.

How he didn’t notice him when he first walked in bewilders him, he must have blended in with the wall, wearing all that black. But there he is, in the flesh, Jisung nearly pats himself on the back for doing the impossible and seeing the Vanquisher outside pro bending events.

Chenle’s voice is as sugar-sweet as he remembers, light and airy like rose petals in the summer breeze as he tells the waiter his order. The waiter nods and Chenle grins at him as he walks to Jisung’s table, his face falling in an instant when their eyes lock.

Jisung can feel his cheeks heating up, but breaks the staring contest to give the waiter his own order. He forgets what he was choosing between and orders the daily special.

When the waiter clicks his pen and disappears back into the kitchen Jisung is on the move, sliding out of the booth and attempting an inconspicuous walk over to Chenle’s table. It fails, the latter noticing him as soon as he stands up and keeping his eyes on him the entire walk there, but it was worth a try.

“Need, um, need any company?” he asks, pulling out the chair opposite to Chenle.

“Not really. Thanks for offering, though,” comes Chenle’s response.

Jisung sits down anyways.

“What do you want?” Chenle sighs, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms. He looks at him with blank eyes, and Jisung can feel himself starting to sweat. Curse his dumb body, it’s just Chenle, not a life or death situation. Though, Jisung feels like his fight or flight response should start kicking in at any moment. Talking to him makes him do things he normally wouldn’t do when talking to anybody else.

“I want you to reconsider what you said the other day. I’m sorry I was pushing too hard, but I’m serious about what I said,” he pushes out, as he speaks his nerves start to settle down.

“Apology accepted, but my answer is still no. I can give you a list of other talented Earthbenders in the city, if you’d like.”

“I don’t  _ want  _ anybody else. It has to be you, Chenle. It  _ can’t  _ be anybody else. Look,” Jisung takes a breath. “I know the war is scary. I know that better than anybody, it’s absolutely terrifying. We’ve all grown up with it our entire lives, it’s not fair. But, it won’t stop until either the Earth Kingdom wins, or somebody fights back and restores balance to the world again.”

The waiter returns, slightly surprised to see that Jisung changed locations, but delivers the two of them their meals with a bow and leaves once again. Jisung picks up his chopsticks and gets to work, hunching over his bowl and slurping his noodles.

Chenle takes a more civilized approach, placing his chopsticks between dainty fingers, clicking them together twice before picking up a slice of lean pork and blowing on it before eating. 

Looking at their bowls, Jisung realizes they ordered the same thing.

“I understand your argument, and I’m not scared of the fight itself, but I just can’t go. Nothing you say will convince me to join you,” Chenle says once he’s done chewing.

Jisung attempts a response with his mouth full, but almost spits some food in Chenle’s direction and decides to swallow it down before replying. “What are you afraid of, then? Are you afraid you aren’t good enough or something, because that’s crazy, you’re like, the best—“

“No, I know my abilities. I’m not worried that I’ll fail.”

“Then what is it? If you’re brave enough to fight, and sure enough of your abilities then why don’t you just—“

“It’s  _ none  _ of your  _ business,  _ Avatar. I don’t owe you anything, so I don’t have to tell you anything.” Chenle’s voice turns cold, sharp words creating a rocky barrier between them. Jisung’s cheeks burn with shame.

“You say you aren’t scared,” Jisung starts, “but by the way you’re talking to me you sound like you’re deflecting. My Airbending trainer is teaching me all about turbulent emotions being bad when you bottle them up inside, it’s good to—“

“ _ No.” _

The conversation abruptly ends there. Chenle looks down, clenching his jaw tight and setting his chopsticks down next to his bowl in one swift motion to cross his arms.

Jisung sits in the silence, afraid that speaking more might further aggravate the boy before him.

“Get out,” Chenle finally says through gritted teeth. “Leave me alone before I call the police and tell them you’re stalking me.”

“Wh—Chenle, I—“

“Just go, okay? Go.”

“Um, my soup—“

“I’ll pay for it! Just go. Away.”

Drawing his lips into a fine line and trying not to cry from embarrassment, Jisung rises from his chair and pushes it in, letting the legs scrape against the tile floor.

He pulls out forty yuans and slides it onto the table. “I’ve got it. Sorry for wasting your time, He says, looking right into the other's eyes. "But just know, when you go back to your luxury penthouse tonight and complain about how alone you are, you’re the only one to blame.”

Chenle only gives him a short glance as he walks out, shoulders slumped and heart heavy.

≈

Jisung barely sleeps for the next two days. He spends the early hours of the morning on the rooftop of Renjun’s building, either training or just lying there and staring at the sky. He makes it back inside in time for when Jaemin the early bird wakes up to avoid suspicion, though he notices something’s off during their scheduled training slot time at the gym.

“Do you need some rest, Jisung? You seem a little off,” he remarks after watching Jisung stumble through his Airbending form for the fifth time today.

Jisung shakes his head. “I’m fine. Hit me again.”

“I think you should take a seat, Jeno can get you a bottle of water from the vending machine or something.”

“That machine is rigged, it ate my five yuans yesterday,” Jeno calls from his place leaning against a wall.

“You’re a smart cookie, break it.”

“Really Jaemin, I’m fine. I don’t need rest, what I need is to master Airbending,” says Jisung, still catching his breath.

Jaemin sighs. “Look, Jisung. I know what Chenle said was a little harsh, and I don’t know what’s got you so riled up and rushed these days but you need to learn to control your emotions. Remember what I taught you about meditating, it liberates the mind. We can do it together back at Renjun’s!”

“Jaemin’s right,” Renjun adds. “Besides, being calm and collected are things you have to master for Waterbending, too. When we get to that, it’ll be good to have this head start.”

“My emotions are  _ fine _ , I just need to focus on this, stop doting on me.”

“It’s okay to take a break, you know. Let things come to you. Like I said, the universe has plans for you, it told you itself, but you have to trust it so that things can progress in your favour. You can’t rush the universe, countless people have tried and failed.”

Jisung clenches a fist. “You guys don’t  _ get  _ it, I can’t just wait around for this shit to fall into my lap! If I want something, I have to go out and get it. I have to get to Chenle, or else—ugh, nevermind, just, stop telling me what the stupid universe says because the universe isn’t the one who’s going to save the world from a terrible fucking war. But Chenle made his message clear, so if we don’t all want to die I have to get better at the other elements I  _ can  _ learn so my people,  _ all  _ of our people, can survive this.”

Jaemin looks at him deeply, hurt flashing over his eyes for a moment before it turns into something else, something more vulnerable and concerned. He just nods, and Jisung starts walking away.

“I’m going on a walk,” he says. “This is me taking that break you wanted so bad.”

Nobody stops him.

It’s nighttime outside, lamp poles lit up along the sidewalk with strings of fairy lights hanging from one side of the road to the other, bathing the streets in warm yellow twinkling glow. The air is warm, nearly humid as he practically stomps along the sidewalk, rubbing his eyes to shake the sleep out.

This part of the city is more lively at night it seems, bigger groups of people crowding around night market goods and grabbing street meat from food stands. Jisung probably would go get some grub too, but he decides against it.

His legs take him far away from the training gym and the lively night scene to a large park, rich grassy hills and slopes housing thick bushes and towering trees. A small river flows through the park, probably into the bay nearby, and as Jisung walks on the city-paved pathway he catches a family of turtle ducks swimming through it, quacking happily upon seeing him approach the water. He usually would smile, but he can’t will himself to.

He sits down by the riverbed, gazing up at the big city closing the park in on all sides, lights from inside skyscrapers flickering like the fireflies buzzing over his head.

“Everything sucks,” he mutters to the turtle ducks, leaning back on his hands. “I have an evil person giving me nightmares so I’m tired as shit, and my supposed Earthbending teacher keeps going AWOL on me, so I'm just never going to learn how to bend a whole fucking  _ element  _ and be the Avatar everybody fucking needs me to be. What do I do?”

The mother turtle duck gives a nonchalant quack and leads her babies down the river. Proving his point, that everything sucks and nobody will help him.

A plethora of small rocks line the riverbed and Jisung picks one up, angling his hand to skip it and throwing it into the water. It  _ plunks _ into the water unceremoniously. Jisung frowns.

He picks another one up, adjusts his grip, and throws it. It makes it only half as far as the first one before sinking into the river.

“Fucking dragon piss,” he groans. He can’t even skip a rock.

Eye twitching and losing his patience, he continues to terribly throw rocks into the water, sounds of rage escaping his lips after every toss. To any onlooker, he probably looks insane.

“You need to use the flat rocks, they’ll glide better.”

Jisung drops a particularly heavy rock he was going to throw in anger on his kneecap, shouting in anguish. “What the—“ he starts, rubbing his knee and grimacing, until he sees who spoke to him.

Chenle stands underneath a weeping willow, smiling half heartedly his way.

The darkness of the night fails to mask his appearance, small fireflies dancing around his head and reflecting their light off his warm eyes. He wears a black shirt underneath an oversized grey hoodie, draping over his knuckles, but his small fingers peek out to hold a white container in front of him with one hand. The other is tucked inside the pocket of plain black joggers that look normal but probably costs more than Jisung’s entire outfit. Effortless, but seeing him in this still makes Jisung stop and stare for a moment.

“What are you—what the f—what are you doing here? How did you find me?” Jisung finally asks.

“You swear a lot when you’re angry,” Chenle remarks, then brings his free hand up to push the hair away from his forehead. It looks messier than usual. “Honestly, I don’t want to sound creepy, but I was sort of looking for you.”

Jisung fights the urge to be embarrassed at his cursing to raise an eyebrow at the other boy. “Looking for me? How’d you know I’d be here?”

“I didn’t. But the last time we met we were in this area and you had workout clothes on. I assumed you exercise here, so I’ve just been walking around hoping to run into you.”

Jisung looks away so Chenle won’t catch him blushing. He throws a rock in the water, and it doesn’t skip.” “What did you want to see me for?”

“I um,” Now it’s Chenle’s turn to be embarrassed, finding interest in his running shoes all of a sudden. “I wanted to apologize, for that time at the restaurant. I shouldn’t have said all that stuff, and I certainly shouldn’t have told you to go away like that. Normally I’m not so cold towards people--I’m really not--and I let my emotions get the better of me and it made you upset, so I’m sorry.” He looks down at Jisung, expression somehow sorrowful and innocent at the same time.

This is not at all what Jisung was expecting. He was sure he would never even see him again after the other day, but here he is. Actually apologizing to him. And it sounds . . . really sincere? He’s giving Jisung kicked puppy eyes, and he has to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from instantly forgiving him and moving on.

“Is that all you’re here for?” is what he says instead, throwing another rock and failing to skip it. His expression blanks.

“No,” Chenle replies, then Jisung hears shuffling and kicking of rocks, and when he looks over to his left the other boy is sitting next to him, extending one leg out in front of him and wrapping his arms around the other, resting his chin on his bent knee. The container he was holding is now placed in between them.

Jisung doesn’t speak, silently urging him to continue.

Chenle sighs. “I thought about what you said, about being scared to get involved in all this. I could have sworn I sat in that restaurant for hours after you left, just thinking about it.” He pauses to take a deep breath. “Because you were right, I  _ am  _ scared. I’m scared of so many things, Jisung, I’m fucking  _ terrified.  _ I talk a big game in the pro bending ring but really all I do is run away from real threats, to a point where I just, push people away. When you told me I had to face the music and just  _ go  _ for it because I had to, it struck a chord in me, and I pushed you away too. But I came to find you so I say that I’m done running.”

“What do you mean?” Jisung twists his torso to look at him, searching his face for an answer.

Chenle clears his throat, crossing his legs. “Avatar Jisung, I want to be your Earthbending teacher, if you’ll still have me.”

Jisung widens his eyes, stunned. Jaemin’s words ring in his head once more,  _ If it’s meant to be, it’ll be. He’ll come to you, _ and he came, biting his lip and folding his hands in his lap and looking at him with such anticipation it makes Jisung want to cry from how endearing he looks. He makes a mental note to listen to Jaemin more often, maybe the universe  _ isn’t  _ against him.

“Please say something,” Chenle’s voice cuts through his thoughts, “you’re just staring at me and it’s making me worried. Am I too late? Did you find someone else? If I’m too late this is really embarrassing.”

Jisung blinks twice at him, then shakes his head. “No, you’re right on time. I’d love to have you as my teacher.”

Chenle’s relief comes out in a long sigh, putting a hand on his heart and smiling a big, toothy smile that makes Jisung’s heart bounce around like a ping-pong ball in his ribcage. It’s different from all his other smiles, it’s genuine and happy and so  _ adorable  _ Jisung can’t help but smile back.

“What’s the container for?” he asks, looking down at the little white tupperware in between them.

“Oh! Right, I um, I felt bad about making you leave when you barely touched your soup so, I made dumplings? As a peace offering,” the apples of Chenle’s cheeks darken to a wonderful shade of pink as he talks.

Sweltering heat rises to Jisung’s face and before he knows it he’s blushing too, taking the container into both hands and opening it to see six perfectly made dumplings in three rows. A pair of wooden chopsticks are placed on top of them, and Jisung feels like his head might explode. “I—thank you, Chenle, this is, this is really nice of you. Can I eat them here?”

“Go ahead, they’re yours!”

Jisung holds the chopsticks and picks up a dumpling, taking a large bite and covering his mouth in embarrassment when Chenle giggles.

“And, don’t worry about being bad at rock skipping,” he says, dusting off a flat, circular rock. He tosses it forwards and it skips seven times, travelling the entire width of the river and landing on the other side. Jisung gapes. “When you’re an Earthbender, it’ll come naturally.”

Jisung full on laughs at that, both of them settling into a small fit of giggles as they look out at the river.

“Do you want to come with me to Renjun’s? That’s kind of our secret lair at the moment,” Jisung says.

Chenle nods. “I was kind of hoping you’d ask.”

With that, the two of them stand up and dust themselves off, Chenle following Jisung’s lead, who fills his mouth with warm dumplings as they make their way down the park pathway.

The stars wink at them from high above their heads, and Jisung relishes in the midnight glow of the moon shining down on the city.

He has an inkling that he will sleep just a little better tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM VERY SORRY...IT WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO TAKE THIS LONG TO POST IT...but the chapter im writing rn is kicking my ASS i need to get back on my grind to write this, normally i wouldnt post this until i finished writing the one im writing rn but i realized u all deserve this chapter u've waited so long so here u go !! lmk ur thoughts i need motivation thank u


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